The Butterfly Effect
by NinjaStripes
Summary: Law strikes interest in a heavily wounded, former slave of the world nobles.  After some time, and a few mishaps, the crew notices some positive changes in their captain.  Is this girl, Cuervo, the cause?
1. Chapter 1: The End and The Start

** For those of you who have read my other story, thank you for giving this one a try. For those of you who have yet to witness my genius, have fun with my new story. One of my favorite characters. I really can't decide which is my favorite character in One Piece. I like them all I guess. Here's chapter one of my new story. I do not own One Piece.**

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><p>I bobbed up and down on a broken piece of wood running a fever and my side stung. I had a massive gash in my side and the burn on my back stung more every time the rough waves came down on it. Another salty wave crashed on my back and I breathed in through my teeth. It hurt like fucking hell. "<em>I am going to make sure they pay for this, I'll kill them all."<em> I thought. Though I didn't know if I would last to get my revenge. I clenched my fists on the broken piece of ship that I was clinging on to. Tears slipped down my face. I had never been so humiliated in my life and now my everything was gone. The baby sister, the only thing I had left of my mother and father. I remembered that day clearly. That day my sister and I were bought as slaves to the Celestial Dragons.

_"Why did you bring me a human infant? It's useless!" the Celestial Dragon said. I couldn't look up. I was so scared. The sound of my baby sister crying snapped me back to what was happening. I looked at my helpless baby sister. She was in a basket with a tiny neck ring around her neck. She looked so helpless, all she could do was cry. I was being held down on all fours. They had taken my shirt off so that the mark of the Celestial Dragons would be burned onto my back. The thought of how painful it would be scared me. But the thought of what the Celestial Dragon would do to a "useless slave" scared me more. "I am sorry sir, the man at the desk said you had bought it. I promise, I'll bring-" a man with glasses didn't have time to finish the rest of his sentence. He was shot in the head by the Celestial Dragon. "You're a worthless human, and you dare to make excuses." The Celestial Dragon pointed the gun at helpless little baby, my baby sister. He lifted the gun and shot the poor baby girl. Blood stained the basket and dripped everywhere._

_ My eyes felt hot, tears poured out of my eyes like waterfalls, and my gut burned with anger. So much anger that I forgot all about my fear and screamed at the Celestial Dragon. "You monster, how could you? She was just a baby. You monster, you monster, you monster. Rot in hell, you bastard!" I felt a sharp pain at my cheek. The monster had put all of his strength into that kick. "You dare to talk to me like that you lowly human? And a slave at that. I'll show you what happens to the people who speak against the worlds creators." The Celestial Dragon pulled out the hot iron that was shaped into the paw of a dragon out of the furnace sized fire place. The metal glowed white hot and steam rose from this alone. Even though it hadn't touched a thing yet it sizzled. The men holding me down raised my arms outward so that my back would be an easy target. I heard the sizzling metal come closer. I didn't even need to look at it. The heat alone scared me. I struggled, trying to pull my arms away. One of the guards pounded my head and made me feel dizzy._

_ My eyes opened wide and I screamed at the top of my lungs when the hot iron paw reached my back. My skin melted underneath it and the liquid skin made the iron sizzle more. Black smoke rose from my back in large amounts and hot blood poured down my back and soaked my pants. I heard the Celestial Dragon laugh at my helplessness. Despite the excruciating pain I bent my head in shame and cried the most tears than I had ever cried. I couldn't protect the little sister I held so dear and now I was about to become nothing more than a doll to this monster. The five minutes the Celestial Dragon held the hot iron at my back felt like an eternity. I lost my energy to even stand on all fours. I just fell forward and heard the Celestial Dragon laugh louder at my state. My grief turned into rage._

_ I pushed myself up to my feet and turned to glare at the Celestial Dragon. He stopped laughing and put on a shocked expression. It was like the thought never crossed his mind that some one would __look him in the eye, let alone glare at him with the look of vengeful demon. I ran towards the monster that killed my sister, only my rage giving me energy, and tackled him before he could pull out the gun he used to kill my baby sister. He fell backward into the fireplace, immediately catching fire. The men around me were petrified. I grabbed the hot iron maker that the Celestial Dragon dropped and pressed the hot iron to his face. I dropped that and grabbed the large metal mallet that lay on the floor next to me. I lifted it high into the air. I brought it down and it landed on top of the Celestial Dragons head. Landed on wasn't even the word, more like crushed. The blood splattered on my face and my naked chest. The blood was hot and dripped down every portion of my body. The men behind me ran to kill me with saber swords in the air. I dove to their legs and tripped them, sending them flying to the direction of their former employer. All of them gave a blood curling scream when they caught fire._

_ I ran to the blood pouring basket that held my sisters body. I couldn't leave her there. Not in that hell. I rapped her in the blanket she was lay ed on top of, making sure to cover her entire body. I ran up the stairs and out to the docks where we were dropped off. I found a large dinghy being unloaded. I didn't pay any mind to what it was unloading. I ran to the man in the dinghy and pushed him into the water. I quickly set the sails and the wind pushed me off into the choppy waters. A storm hit me not long after I left and a lighting bolt split the small boat in half. One of the pieces of wood sliced my side open. As if I hadn't lost enough blood. I clinged onto my sisters corpse as I fell into the freezing water. I only held the fabric covering my sisters body and the fabric undid itself. My sisters body was sent to the ocean floor in this hell. I cried and lunged onto a piece of wood. I held on for dear life. Just as the storm suddenly started, it stopped. The seas were quiet again, and lonely. I sobbed and pulled the wet, blood stained fabric to my face. I slipped it open and tied it around my chest to keep my breasts from showing._

That all led to where I was now. Stuck in the middle of the Grand Line wounded and alone. I sobbed more and fell asleep. I didn't care if I died. I just wanted to see my sister again.

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><p>Down below the waters surface, a submarine was waiting for the current of the water to calm to resurface. In the submarine, was a dark skinned man. Not black, but a dark tan. Dark shadows were placed under his eyes and black side burns in front of his ears. He had an equally black goatee on his chin. On his ears were small hoop earrings pierced into the lobes. He had jet black hair hidden under his white northern styled spotted fuzzy hat. The spots on his hat resembled the spots on his pants, but the spots were a lighter shade of black. He also wore a yellow hoodie with black sleeves. The sleeves rolled up to his elbows The man had an unusually long sword leaning on his shoulder. The hilt above his head. He was slouching against a wall in a sitting position. A man wearing a tan jumpsuit and a hat that read "Penguin" came up to him. "Law, the waters are calm now so I think we should resurface. Bepo is going crazy from heat and sweating like a pig." the man said. The dark skinned man, Law, opened his eye lids to reveal his storm gray eyes. He peeked over at the man. "Alright, lets resurface. I'm getting a little hot myself. Set the controls to resurface, Penguin." said Law. The man, Penguin looked happy. "Yes captain." he said and turned to run for the control room. Law could have sworn his crew mate said something under his breath but didn't care. He grunted and pushed himself up with the wall and the strength of his legs.<p>

Law felt the submarine lurch upward and heard the metal of the sub groan and screech. This wasn't a bad thing. It was just a simple reaction of the metal being released from major water pressure. One of his crew mates shouted to him from the room that held the radars. "Captain, there's something above us." the new man said. He wore the same jumpsuit but his hat was a blue and orange beanie. "Is it dangerous? How big is it?" Law asked. He didn't look too concerned. "It doesn't appear to be, and it looks pretty small. About the size of a person. It's on the surface of the water." the man with the beanie said. "Continue with resurfacing then. We'll see what it is when we get outside." Law said, closing his eyes. He made his way to the heavy steel door that led to the deck of the submarine.

He passed a hallway to his left and heard weird screams. It wasn't a blood curling scream, just a scream of irritation and slight discomfort. Law looked down the hallway and saw his first mate. A white polar bear with big black eyes. He wore an orange jumpsuit instead of the tan ones the other crew mates wore. But like the rest of the suits, it had a miniature jolly roger of the Heart Pirates stitched where the heart would be. The polar bear himself had wet fur full of soaked up sweat. "Don't worry Bepo, we'll be at the surface in a few minutes." Law said. The bear looked up with a now calm expression. "Oh, okay." Bepo said in a high but low tone. Bepo ran to the door that led outside to wait for the sub to resurface. Law smiled and followed his sweaty first mate to the heavy steel door.

After a couple of minutes, the sub floated above water. Bepo quickly unlocked the tightly sealed door and swung it open. From what Bepo could tell when he looked around, it was near night fall. The sky was a dim orange giving into the black of night.

Law reached the door and saw Bepo was looking to the right of where the submarine was facing. "What is it, Bepo?" Law asked. He walked to the side of his first mate and followed the bears line of sight. He saw a black lump on top of a large piece of broken wood. One side of the broken wood looked darker than the other and it didn't look like the shade of the lump was causing this. Law barked a few orders to his crew down below in the control room. Giving them directions and the speed to travel at. When they reached the lump on the piece of wood, they stopped. Law took a closer look.

It was a girl. About seventeen or eighteen with short black hair that reached to her jaw line and the hair in the back was shorter, short enough to spike it. She had relatively pale skin. The blood all over contrasted with the pale skin, which led to Law noticing a large dragon paw shaped burn on her back. Over half of the paw was covered by a blood stained blanket tied around her body to cover her breasts. The piece of wood she was clinging on to was stained with so much blood the entire left half was crimson. Her face was splattered with dry blood and so did her chest.

"Bepo, get Penguin and Scratch and tell them to bring the stretcher with them. Tell the others to get ready for surgery!" Law said. He didn't have concern but his voice was strict. Bepo nodded and ran down below. Law dropped his sword, leaped over the railing of the deck, and held on to the bottom of one of the poles perpendicular to the sub. With his other hand he reached out to the girl. He was careful not to agitate the burn on her back when he grabbed the blanket tied around her. He clenched his fist around the fabric and pulled the girl out of the water. When she was out of the water, he saw a big gash in her left side and a prosthetic leg. Steel from what he could tell. He heard a sharp breath for air escape her mouth. She was alive, but barely. Law had trouble yanking himself and the girl onto the deck of his sub. Bepo ran out and saw his captain hanging on the poles of the railing. He ran over and pulled his captain back onto the deck. Then came Penguin and the blue and orange beanie man, Scratch, with a stretcher in their hands.

They spread the stretcher on the floor, carefully picked up the water and blood dripping girl, and softly placed her on top of the stretcher. When her burned back hit the foreign fabric, her teeth clenched and she breathed in hard. She was unconscious, so her body acted on pain by instinct. The two men carried her below deck to the surgery room. Law walked calmly below deck and Bepo grabbed his captains sword and followed.

Penguin and Scratch place the occupied stretcher on a table with wheels. It was used to place the occupied stretcher on it and move the occupant to the operation table. Just as they were supposed to, the men carefully moved the girl to the operation table. Even with all of their caution, waves of pain flew through the girls body. Deep breaths through her teeth followed each wave of pain her body felt. The men quickly placed the girl on the operation table. They tried to keep her pain at a minimum. Law entered the operation room with a white apron and white rubber gloves that went to his elbows. Penguin grabbed the oxygen mask that lay on the head of the operation table and placed it on the girls mouth. Scratch grabbed the small table that held the tray filled with scalpels, surgeon scissors, and other surgery tools. Bepo leaned the sword in to far corner of the room and grabbed the basic first aid supplies. Such as rubbing alcohol, ointment, hydrogen peroxide, cotton balls, gauze, bandages, and skin stapler, all packed in a big red box.

Law pulled the bright light above him and pointed it at the gash in the girls side. The burn could wait until later. This was a more life threatening wound. Law grabbed a large cotton ball and poured rubbing alcohol on it. He cleaned the wound thoroughly telling his men to start sanitizing a needle and lots of thread. When he was done cleaning the gash, he grabbed the newly sanitized needle that Scratch held for his captain. Ready with a long piece of thread in the tiny loop in the end. Law began stitching the gash closed. Penguin held a towel on top of the parts that Law had yet to get to to stop as much bleeding as he could. Luckily, no organs were damaged when whatever cut her open did what it did, so that made Laws job easier.

The girl breathed through her clenched teeth sharply with every action of the surgery Bepo grabbed a face cloth and wet it with cold water. He rubbed the girls head with the cool piece of cloth, wiping away the dry blood and sweat all over her face. Bepo told the other men around him, all wearing jump suits and hats, to get a clean blanket from the closet. The men did as they were told. Law finished the stitching and looked at the blood stained cloth tied around the girls chest. He took the scissors from the tray and snipped the cloth through the gap between her breasts. The fabric came open and Law carefully flipped the girl over. He discarded the dirty fabric into the trash can that was used for dirty rubber gloves. Law took out another cotton ball and repeated the process he did before. He cleaned the wound thoroughly and rubbed a large amount of ointment on the whole burn. Bepo had readied the gauze and the large, thin piece of cotton that would protect the burn and sewn gash from bacteria.

Law carefully flipped the girl back over and pushed her into a sitting position. Bepo held her up carefully while Law rapped the gauze around her body. The gauze had to cover her entire torso and back. Which meant that there would be no need for a shirt. The gauze covered the girls breasts, the burn on her back, and the sewn gash in her side. The men came back with a blanket and a new stretcher. Penguin and Scratch knew where to take the treated girl. They spread out the new stretcher on the same table and carefully moved the girl to it. The other men draped the blanket over her to keep her warm. Then Penguin and Scratch brought the girl to the empty room next to the captains office. Law shed off the apron and threw the rubber gloves in the same basket where the dirty fabric was. He headed to his office to prepare some disinfectant.

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><p>I felt woozy and my stomach empty. I heard voices all around me but I couldn't make out what they were saying. The voices were to distorted. All I could tell was that all of them were men. God, I hoped they weren't marines. I didn't have the strength to open my eyes, but I knew I was somewhere bright. I felt a blanket over me. It was warm even though it felt thin. Like a hospital bed. Then I felt a cold liquid being rubbed on the inside of my elbow. It smelt like alcohol. The a sudden sharp pain in the exact same place. It didn't hurt enough to make me breath in hard or leap forward. Just a sharp pain that could be dealt with. I felt a cold liquid enter my blood stream. I felt the cold liquid run though my body for a while until it heated to my temperature. I felt the needle that had invaded my body leave and a soft object was put in its place. It was taped on so that no blood from the vein below the puncture could escape. I opened my eyes only a little. My vision was blurred. All I could make out was a dark skinned man with jet black hair. My vision was too blurred to make out any details. I fell back into a deep slumber. I was to tiered to care right now.<p>

When I came to again, I had the energy to moan and push myself up. I had a major head ache and my ears felt plugged. I opened my eyes and looked around. The room was darker than what was surely a couple of hours ago. The walls were metal and lined with shelves of medical equipment. Even jars of organs in what was probably stationary liquid. A liquid used to keep organic objects from rotting. This scared the shit out of me. Then I looked to my left and saw a giant polar bear in an orange jumpsuit sitting in a chair next to me. I swore my heart skipped a beat when the bear suddenly came into my line of sight. I stayed quiet, scared of the thought that it might attack me if I made any noise at all. It just stared at me with big black eyes. It got up, walking on its hind legs, went to the door, and exited the room.

I let out a large breath of air that I had apparently been holding. I must have held my breath when I saw the polar bear. _"Why is a polar bear wearing a jumpsuit? Why would any bear be wearing clothes? How can a bear walk like a human? If I'm dreaming, wake me up now! Please!"_ I thought. The organs in jars was bad enough, but a giant polar bear was about the scariest thing I had ever seen. I had heard stories back home that hikers were torn apart by mountain bears when you got close to one. And the females are the scariest of all. I heard the metal around me groan and saw there was a window to my right. I looked outside and saw I was in a submarine, probably about two-thousand feet below sea level. Well that was fucking great. I was stuck in a strangers submarine two-thousand feet below sea level, stuck with a giant fucking bear. A fucking bear. What rotten luck.

I was about to start cussing out loud when the door opened again. I saw three new men come in along with the bear. From their expressions when they saw me, I figured out I was still wide eyed. Two of the men were wearing hats and tan jumpsuits. Not like the orange jumpsuit the bear was wearing. One had a hat that read "Penguin" and the other had a blue and orange beanie. The third man was , what I swore, the man I saw all blurred from what must have been a couple of hours ago before I passed out. Like I guessed earlier, this man had very tan skin and black hair. But this time I could make out the details. The man had storm gray eyes that could cut right through you. His hair was mostly covered, save the sideburns in front of his ears and the black goatee under his lower lip, by a big fuzzy white cap with black spots on the rim and up from the rim. The spots got smaller as they went up and disappeared half way up the hat. His pants had the same pattern, though the spots were lighter in shade and the pants were a very light blue. He wore a yellow hoodie with black sleeves rolled up to his elbows. Right smack dab in the middle of the hoodie was, what scared the living shit outta me, his jolly roger.

_"I'm in a pirates submarine. Locked in with blood thirsty outlaws by crushing water pressure and impending death. Lovely!"_ I thought sarcasticly. I would have to watch my tone with these people. Being surrounded by bone crushing water and blood thirsty pirates (who saved my life) I couldn't push my luck seeing as to where it had gotten me, analyzing the situation. The dark skinned man sat in the chair that the bear once sat in and looked me over. "I have to say, I did my job well considering your bright eyes. They looked dead a couple of days ago." the dark skinned man said in a lazy tone. _"What? Days? Oh, fuck me. I'm surprised they haven't killed me yet, let alone rescued me." _I thought. A loud growl disrupted the short lived silence. _"Can I get anymore pathetic?"_ I asked myself. Before I could start apologizing for my body being so rude, a metal tray was shoved in front of me carrying a well made sandwich, quite the handsome sandwich let me tell you, and a glass of water. I looked up and saw the man wearing the Penguin hat had offered it to me. He was smiling. "We expected that to happen. Don't eat it too fast, otherwise you'll get stomach cramps." the man said. He had light brown hair peeking from underneath his hat but you couldn't see the eyes. "Thank you very much." I said, taking the trey. "And thanks for the warning." The dark skinned man chuckled. "You're pretty polite, aren't you?" he asked. I placed the trey on my lap. "Yes, at least in a situation when I'm in a submarine that belongs to a pirate, traveling maybe two-thousand feet below sea level, and surrounded by crushing water pressure. I don't wanna piss the wrong person off in a mess like this." I said in a matter-of-fact tone that I did not mean to give. Fuck my habits.

The men in the hats and jumpsuits laughed and the dark skinned man chuckled. I didn't know what they were laughing at. I waited no longer to start eating the food in front of me. I took a small bite of the sandwich. I took a small bite because if the pirates wanted any questions answered, I would be able to swallow it and answer quickly. "And why would you not want to piss the wrong person, mainly me, off?" the dark skinned man asked. _"I knew it! He's the captain." _I thought to myself. I swallowed the piece of sandwich, which I wanted to enjoy longer, and faced him when I answered, "Cause I don't wanna die." He burst out laughing. From the horrified expressions his crew wore, including the bear who had been looking around blankly, told me that this was something unfamiliar to even the crew. He calmed down and leaned towards me with his eyes showing more interest than what I was comfortable with. "My name is Trafalgar Law and I'm the captain of the Heart Pirates. Manners would indicate that you must introduce yourself after some one has told you their name."

Okay! This guy, despite being a pirate, knew of manners and he used the law of manners to get what he wanted. My name. I sighed. "My name is Sangre Cuervo, Mister Law. Jeez, I haven't known you for more than an hour and you're already controlling me with one thing and I know you're going to control me with it again later. I bet on it." I answered, though I might have said more than I should have. The man, Mister Law, leaned closer, wearing a wide smirk across his face, and grabbed my chin softly. Like a lovers hold. "And what, prey tell, will you bet with?" he asked. His cold, stormy eyes dug into my mind. I had to admit, this guy scared me, being so close. But he was a pirate, what defenseless girl wouldn't be scared in the slightest in the situation I was in. But for some reason or another, I always had to answer in a smart ass or gutsy way. "My life, if you so wish. It is in the palm of your hand now, considering I have nowhere to run."

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><p>Law chuckled. He found this girl interesting. She was gutsy, honest, and was able to keep herself alive with nothing but, what he was sure of by what he had seen of Cuervo so far, a stubborn will to live. He looked down at Cuervo. She was sporting a face full of pride but hid a hint of fear. He looked down at the girls body. It was about time to change her bandages. They had to be changed daily. Law let go of Cuervo's chin and slouched down. He pulled out the big red first-aid kit from under the bed. He figured if he had to change the bandages daily, it would be easier to keep the first-aid kit in the room. He pulled the box up and plopped it on the bed. "It's time to change your bandages. Please finish eating." Law said. Cuervo looked down at her body and saw that the bandages covered her entire torso. Which meant that he had seen her breasts. She blushed only slightly. Then she remembered the first words she heard him speak, <em>"I have to say, I did my job well,". <em>This led her to believe the fact that he was a doctor. Which was true.

Feeling a little better about the oncoming situation, Cuervo finished the sandwich, carefully, and slugged down the water. Penguin, Scratch, and Bepo left the room to give Cuervo as much privacy as a girl deserves. When the door shut, Law began undoing the bandages. The bandages were layed on the floor and new ones were taken out of the big red box, as well as ointment, hydrogen peroxide, cotton balls, and a weak cotton fabric that was used to protect the wound from bacteria. Law told Cuervo to turn her back towards him and she did. Law squeezed out a large amount of ointment to cover the largely burned area. Law felt Cuervo's muscles tense as he moved his hands up and down her back, spreading the ointment over the wounded area. The wound was healing nicely, but it looked sensitive to touch. Law did not let this move his pace any quicker. He grabbed a towel, which was prepared for his use after applying the ointment, and rubbed off the ointment on his hands. He flung the towel back on the desk and pulled out a cotton ball. He doused that in hydrogen peroxide and cleaned the stitched area. This one was really sensitive to touch, especially with hydrogen peroxide

Cuervo flinched as the wet cotton ball touched the sensitive area. Law leaned over to the desk and picked up the bandages and the big weak piece of cotton. He draped the cotton over the burn and started to bandage the girl just as she was before. Cuervo held her arms up in the air to make the process easier for him. Law smiled in response to the kind gesture and continued with his work. Law tied a knot in to bandages to make sure they didn't come loose. "You should get some rest, your body is still weak from blood loss. You also have a slight fever so it would do you some good.". Cuervo nodded in response. She pulled up the sheets end fell into the bed. "Thanks for all you did. And sorry for the trouble." she said. Law turned and walked towards the door. "It wasn't out of kindness, but from instinct as a doctor, so no trouble." he said. He didn't even turn to look at Cuervo one last time before he left. He just opened the door and exited the room. _"Okay," _Cuervo thought. _"Maybe he's lacking on some of the manners I thought he had.". _It was considered polite to look at the person you were talking to.

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><p><strong>For those of you who are wondering "Is this person stupid? The story keeps changing point of view.", no I am not stupid. I decided to test out switching point of view between First Person (character telling the story, Cuervo) and Third Person Omniscient (narrator who knows everything). I didn't want to miss out on important things on Law just because Cuervo wasn't with him. I'm still open to new ideas. You already know that Cuervo is polite when she thinks her life could be in danger if she does the wrong thing, but what is her personality towards the crew once she knows they won't kill her or anything unjustly? Is she still polite? Is she quiet, outgoing, mischevious, tough to handle? I also need a big, long term reason why Law let Cuervo stay, and it can't be because he fell in love. He doesn't feel it or know about that yet<strong>. **Tell me what you want.**


	2. Chapter 2:History and Effect of Cuteness

**From what I saw, I only got one review. I want more reviews. Tell me of any mistakes I might have made. If you do spot any, tell me which paragraph and describe the problem. If you wanna see anything in the story, tell me. I'm still open to ideas. And to all of you who have favorited and alerted my story, LEAVE REVIEWS! Enjoy chapter two.**

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><p>I was left alone in the what was sure to be the room used for patients. Law told me to rest, but I wasn't tired and I wasn't stupid enough to try and move around. The stitches might have come undone. Plus, I didn't want to give the Mister Law any reason to not like me. I was a guest in his sub, so I had to be on my best behavior. But I was so bored. I couldn't just sit there. Well I could, but a couple of hours just sitting there would just take forever. I looked around once again. The jars full of organs still scared the living day lights outta me. I looked away from them and looked out the window again. The sub wasn't at the sea floor, but it was pretty deep. I could tell because my ears felt plugged.<p>

I brought my hand to my nose and plugged it. I took a deep breath, closed my mouth tightly shut, and blew. _Pop! _"Ow" I said. I had only learned how to make your ears pop. I learned it from watching the mountain hikers. The air pressure in the mountains made their ears plug up so they had get the pressure off their ears drums. So they did what I just did, but they didn't flinch from pain like I just did. Maybe they were used to it. But my ears felt better. I looked out the window again and saw a fish swim by. It came back and swam by again. I scooted to the window to get a closer look. The fish stopped at the window, or at least looked like it. What was really happening was that the fish swam at the same speed as the sub, so I could see the full length of the body. It kinda looked furry. I pressed my nose to the window to take a closer. Suddenly, the fish blew up into a ball. So close to my face too. "Aah". _Thump!_ I had fallen backwards, off the bed, and onto the floor. I grabbed the the pillow off the bed, threw it at the window, and shouted "Fucking fish!".

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><p>Law opened the door to his office and entered. He shut the door behind him, pulled out his rolling chair, sat down, and rested his legs on his desk. Law leaned back and sighed. His back was starting to hurt. That's what happened to the crew when they were out at sea for a while, and they still had a week before they reached the next island. Law slipped off his hat and tossed it to the bed beside his desk. Overall, each room in the sub looked the same, but only three rooms had desks. His room, the patient room, and his little sisters room, Ava. The rest of the rooms that held occupants had only bunk beds, two sets in each room, and crusty underwear all over the floor. Law was always nagging at the crew to put their dirty underwear in the laundry shoot, but they never did it. Only once in a while the crew would pick up their underwear, but only when they were running out.<p>

Law heard the door open. He leaned his head backwards to see who it was. It was Ava, upside down by Laws vision. She was a small, thin girl with big boobs. Her hair was choppy and went down to her ears. She wore, just like the rest of the crew, a tan jumpsuit. Though the sleeves were rolled up just like Laws sleeves, showing the many tattoos that decorated her arms. She had more than her brother did, mostly just to upset him but that didn't work. Laws tattoos were tribal gears and the letters D,E,A,T, and H decorated his fingers. Ava's were sleeves with so much detail and items, you couldn't tell how many little tattoos there were. She had dark skin and black shades under her eyes, just like her brother. "So how is our guest doing?" Ava asked. They heard a yelp and a thump next door, the patient room. They turned to look at the wall. A moment later they heard Cuervo yell "Fucking fish!".

Ava snorted, leaning slightly forward and bringing her hand to her mouth. She obviously found it funny. Law only closed his eyes and smiled. He found it funny too, he just had a different way of showing it. "I think she's doing just fine." Law said. "So whats her name? Or does she have amnesia?" Ava asked, still smiling from Cuervos outburst at a fish. "Her name is Sangre Cuervo. From what I've seen during her surgery, she was a former slave of the Celestial Dragons for a short time. The branding mark was fresh, and Celestial Dragons always put their mark on slaves as soon as possible." Law said in his familiar lazy tone. "Hey Ava, let her borrow your clothes. I don't think the crew will be too keen on sharing whitey tightys with a girl.". Ava frowned, widened her eyes, and looked up. _"I don't think me nor Cuervo would be too keen on that either."_ Ava thought, considering all the crews underwear was dirty. "Alright, you want me to give them to her now or later so that the crew can get a good look at her if the bandages come off?" Ava asked as she turned towards the door. "Now would be best, but it's up to you. I don't care either way." Law said, turning back and forth in his chair. "Later, then. Just to mess around with her if her bandages do come off." Ava smiled and exited the room. Law sighed and switched from his chair to his bed. He had to rest his back somehow.

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><p>I sat on the floor, still mad. A fucking fish made fool outta me. I was freaked about a giant white polar bear and a fucking blow fish made me yelp. The fish had swam away after the pillow to the window scared it off. I don't know what, but something possessed me to look behind me to see if anyone had witnessed my embarrassing moment. No one was there. Of course no one was there, I was the only one in the room. I faced forward and sighed. Then I heard the door behind me open. I turned to see who it was this time. I hoped it wasn't the bear. Begging it wasn't the fucking bear. My prayers were answered. It wasn't the bear, but a girl in the same jumpsuit as the rest of Mister Laws crew. Her sleeves were rolled up just like Mister Laws, she even looked exactly like him. She had the black hair, dark skin, shade under the eyes, even tattoos though there was more of them and more detailed.<p>

She was smiling. Something made me think that she had heard my little outburst. I looked at her. I didn't know possessed me to but I asked her "Did you hear everything that just happen in here?". The girls smile grew wider and she nodded. I felt a heat at my cheeks and smiled. "Oops!". The girl laughed, leaning forward with her hands on her hips. _"Wait!"_ I thought, _"If this girl heard what happened, I bet Mister Law heard it too. So much for being on my best behavior." _I thought. I rolled my eyes as I thought this. The girl came forward and offered her hand to me. I grabbed it and she pulled me to my feet. "My names Ava, and welcome to the submarine of the Heart Pirates." She said. Now was my time to introduce myself. But before I could start, Ava pressed her forefinger to my lips. "No need to tell me your name Cuervo, I already know it. My brother filled me in.". Now I new why they resembled each other so closely, they were siblings. Go figure!

I chuckled finding out Ava already knew my name. Then I yawned. I thought the dumb fish would make my time go faster for a little while, but I was bored to death again. "What, tired?" Ava asked. "No just bored. There's nothing to do in this tiny room except for throwing pillows at fish. But we both know how long that lasted.". I began thinking of why I was talking to her so casually. We only just met and she's a member of the pirates that saved my life. I should have been more respectful. Then Ava grabbed my arm and pulled me towards the exit of the room. Then she looked back at me, still pulling, and said "If your so bored, come with me. I planned a little something for my crew mates. They're always leaving their dirty underwear all over their floors. So we're gonna steal them, and their clothes, and hide them. We'll leave it to them to run around naked and find their clothes.". This girl was possibly more cruel than Eustass "Captain" Kidd.

I had heard the rumors and read the papers. They say he has devil fruit powers and that he has destroyed entire towns with them. I've also heard about the Trafalgars, those rumors weren't to pretty either. I was actually a little scared of Ava, remembering what I had heard about her. Switching out a marines organs with a sheep's. The marine didn't last three hours and the sheep only lasted a week. I felt bad for the sheep more than the marine because I liked animals, animals that wouldn't kill me. The bear immediately came back into my mind. "So, uh, the bear." I started. Ava looked back in curiosity. "Does it bite?" I asked. Ava laughed so hard that she had to let go of my arm and hold her stomach. By what I had heard of Ava, I was wondering why a demon laughing wasn't causing the end of the world. Although, Mister Law laughing might cause the end of the world, I was just to scared to try it.

Ava finally calmed down enough to answer my question. "No he doesn't bite, he's actually really sweet. And he's really cute when he's sleeping.". Uh oh. Cute was just what I needed. It was cute that got me caught by bounty hunters and sold to a Celestial Dragon. I was just lucky that the Celestial Dragon was taking a vacation to the start of the Grand Line. We had stopped on an island, which was a popular rest stop for the World Nobles, about seven islands from Marie Joa. So a little over half of the Grand Line. I didn't get captured on Saboady, but an island called Naka. A few islands away form Marie Joa and on a different path on the Grand Line from Law. I was so thankful to the gods for rescuing me, but also damning them for getting me on a pirate ship. Though, I guess a marine ship would have been worse, I mean, they would take me back to Marie Joa and execute me for killing a world noble. But I wasn't about to tell anyone that much.

Ava's yank pulled me out of my thoughts and I was led out the door. The hall way was really different from the room I was just in. Little exposed light bulbs with white sockets hung off the top of the walls, lighting the dim narrow hallway. My prosthetic leg, which was steel with carbon gears, clinked against the metal floor. I looked at the walls, and the ceiling, and saw they too were metal. From seeing my leg every fucking day, I knew the walls were steel. But the outside of the sub had to be titanium but I wasn't sure. Ava made a left and I banged my head against the corner of the walls. Just what I needed, a bump on the head to add to my fatal injuries. Ava just kept going, laughing. I rubbed my forehead and stuck my tongue out at her. Best to do it now before she turned her head. We walked down a couple more yards before stopping at a door to our right. Ava opened the door and led me inside.

The room was a lot smaller than the room I came out of. It was about the size of a wider and deeper broom closet. Somewhere you would put junk. But what I saw was not junk, but two sets of bunk beds with white sheets and the beds were screwed to the floor. Most likely so that they wouldn't fall over if the submarine were attacked. I also saw a disturbing sight on the floor, yellow crusty mens underwear all over the floor. I didn't want to know what the yellow was or why it was crusty. "Eww!" I said, making a face of horror and disgust. Ava let go of my wrist and turned around. There was a door behind me that I did not notice. Ava opened the door and pulled out five duffel bags. "Are we gonna steal them then wash them or just hide them as they are?" I asked. I refused to look at the underwear more than I had to. I just kept my eyes on Ava. She tilted her head in thought. Then she smiled. "Lets leave them as they are. I don't think men like touching dirty underwear that's not theirs." Now I got it. She wanted to teach them a lesson. Then something hit me. "Wait, I don't want to touch a mans dirty underwear either." I said. "Too bad, you're picking them up with me." Ava teased.

After a while, we had all the crews clothes, that weren't on their bodies, in the duffel bags. I was the one who picked up all the underwear in all seven rooms. So four men in seven rooms, plus Ava and Mister Law, that made thirty people living in this submarine. Must feel a little crowded. Ava led me to another door, several dozen yards away from the hall where the crew slept. Ava opened the door, grabbed the three duffel bags off my shoulders, and threw all five inside. I heard tumbling. That told me there were stairs that I couldn't see. The room was dark. I looked deeper into the room. The tumbling stopped. I looked at Ava and she looked at me. "That's the room where we check the turbines if something goes wrong. They're the life of the sub." Ava explained. Great, so if those bags get caught in something, we're stuck down here. That made me nervous.

* * *

><p>Small snores could be heard from Laws mouth. He was sound asleep in his bed with a Salem look on his face. He heard loud screams from his men down the hall. Law opened his eyes slowly and looked over at the door. This had happened before. Ava had turned off what little air conditioning the sub had, and locked herself in the only room that had running air. The engine room. Ava knew how to work the sub, so if there was any trouble she could steer the sub away from danger. This was a little prank to get back at Bepo who, accidentally, mistook Ava's dessert as his own. He had forgotten that he had ate his. One of the rare occasions that Bepo made a mistake. Bepo went more than a little bit crazy that day. It took five men, including Law, to hold him down. It got so bad that Law had to give Bepo tranquilizer. Only after Bepo was asleep that Ava turned the air conditioning back on. The crew gave her a dirty look when she exited the engine room. She just smiled and kissed the sleeping Bepo on the cheek. When Law gave her the look, Ava immediately made her way to her room. She knew the hour long lecture was coming after they brought the sub above water to get the air moving again. Law got so hot that he had to remove his hat and hoodie, leaving him shirtless.<p>

Penguin slammed the door open like he did that day, breaking the emergency to the captain. "Captain, it's Ava. She stole our clothes and hid them. All of our underwear are gone." Penguin yelled. This annoyed Law. He didn't like being disturbed from a nap, but he couldn't lecture his crew about it if it was a major emergency. Plus, Ava just wouldn't care, it would be the marines fault if they were the ones who attacked and Law can't lecture marines. Law looked at his crew member. He was only in his undershirt and whitey tighteys. No hat, no jumpsuit, no boots, and no pants. Law rarely got a look at Penguins eyes so he enjoyed looking at it every time. Penguin's green eyes were wide with horror. Law guessed Ava got tired of seeing the crusty underwear every time it was her turn to wake the crew.

* * *

><p>I have no idea how I was doing it, but Ava had gotten me to talk to the bear. Turns out, he can talk just like a normal human being. I had also confirmed he was male. Ava had asked me if I wanted to be one- hundred percent sure, but I had no desire to see a bears white weenie, if it was white. As much as I hated to admit it, Ava was right. Bepo was sweet, and he was even cute awake. I couldn't look away from those big black eyes. They were so cute. I swear, if I wasn't paying attention to being on my best behavior, I would have hugged Bepo around the neck and kiss his soft, furry cheek. I would have to do that when he was asleep and no one was around. Ava noticed me not being able to keep my eyes off him for more than a minute and my wide smile never going away. All of a sudden, Ava shot out of her seat and yelled "Group hug!". I could tell if I wanted to kill her where she stood or squeal like a little girl who got a big ass teddy bear. Ava grabbed me by the arm and pushed me towards the bear. I landed in Bepo's hold and Ava hugged Bepo's side.<p>

Bepo clearly didn't know what the hell was going on. He just lifted his left arm and looked down at Ava. She was in the area where Bepo's arm was supposed to be and he was holding me with his right. I finally mustered up the courage to get on my feet and hug Bepo's neck. He was about a foot taller than me, so I had to jump to get to his neck. I pulled my self up, using the back of Bepo's neck as support, and kissed his cheek. Bepo looked from Ava to me, and I couldn't get my smile to go away. I looked down at Ava who was still hugging Bepo's side. "Oh my god, thank you so much." I said. My voice cracked in the middle of a squeaky tone. I couldn't help it, it was like a dream come true. I've always wanted a teddy bear, and now I could hug a big ass one anytime I wanted as long as no one but Ava was around. Ava giggled and did the same as I did. She pulled herself up using Bepo's neck and kissed his cheek. We both looked at each other and giggled. We couldn't help it, we were girls after all. After a few seconds of giggling, we heard the door open. It was Mister Law. Damn!

* * *

><p>Law's stomach had been growling ever since Penguin had woken him up. He could care less if the crew was missing a couple of clothes. Food was more important than that. He stood in front of the door that led to the mess hall. He was about to turn the door knob before he heard Cuervo's voice say "Oh my god, thank you so much.". This he had to see. Law opened the door to the mess hall. The mess hall looked just like any other mess hall in a sub. Everything was metal, and the chairs and tables were srewed into the ground. When he looked inside, he saw both Ava and Cuervo hugging Bepo around the neck. "Ava. Cuervo. What are you doing sexually harassing my bear?" Cuervo snorted. That was the last thing she expected to come out of someones mouth in a situation like this. Ava snorted as well. This was the best situation that could ever happen. They both let go of the bear and giggled some more.<p>

Law sighed heavily. If Cuervo kept hanging around Ava, he would have two pain in the asses to deal with. Cuervo was still in only the bandages and the pair of pants they had found her in. The back of the pants were stained with her blood from when she was branded. Then he looked at the prosthetic leg Cuervo sported. It was well engineered if it was still working after being exposed to water for a period of time. Ava ran over and gave her brother a kiss on the cheek. Cuervo stayed where she was. She liked Ava, but she wasn't stupid enough to do the exact same thing she did every single time nor was she stupid enough to kiss a guy with a bounty of 90,000,000 belli. Ava giggled and ran off into the hallway. Cuervo went wide eyed. Ava left Cuervo alone with a cute bear and a guy who creeped her out.

* * *

><p>I stared at the hallway that Ava had retreated to. <em>"Why, why, why? Don't leave me alone."<em> I thought. I looked back at the Trafalgar that was right in front of me. He had a blank stare directed at me. I didn't know him well enough to know what this meant. I heard a stomach growl, and it wasn't me this time. I looked at Bepo who was right behind me. He saw me and shook his head. Wasn't him. Then my gaze turned back to Mister Law. That left him. The stomach growled again and I giggled. It was him. "Don't worry captain, dinner will be ready soon." a voice said from the kitchen. There was a gap for serving food to the crew like the gap in the lunch room at my old school. I was sure they served food the same way too. People just picking up a tray and the food was loaded up on it as they moved down the railing that held the tray. Behind the gap was a man in a chefs hat, apron, and a pink shirt underneath. This man was around his mid twenties with slicked back hair and a scar over the left side of his lip. He looked at me and looked me over. "Is this the girl you saved? How was the sandwich I made ya? Did you like it?" This was the guy who made that good looking sandwich. "Yes it was, thank you very much, uh," I couldn't finish the sentence. I didn't know his name. "The name's Pip.". Guess he got the message. "Yes Mister Pip, the sandwich was wonderful. Thank you." I answered.

Pip laughed. "You can just call me Pip, and thank you for the lovely compliment. I don't get much of those around here.". I put my hand to my chest softly and put on a look of disbelief. "Why that's horrible." I said. I looked at Mister Law, like he was a naughty little boy. He was kinda, he was a pirate after all. Pip opened the lid to a pot that was boiling a good smelling liquid. It made me drool. Then I felt something wet fall on top of my head. I put my hand on my head to wipe it off. I looked at my hand. It didn't feel like water and it was warm. I looked up and behind me. I saw drool pouring out of Bepo's mouth. He wasn't so cute now. "Eww" I said. I quickly moved from under Bepo's drool zone to one of the tables that held napkin dispensers. I heard Mister Law and Pip chuckling behind me. I pulled out a number of napkins and wiped off my hand and my head. That was really gross. I looked back at Bepo accusingly. He was back to being cute again, damn!

"I'm sorry." Bepo said looking down in shame. I couldn't help but say "Awwww." Mister Law looked at me. He had a small smile on his face and a lazy look in his eye. Like this, he actually looked kind. Pip looked the same way but he was grinning. I looked at both of them. "What, is being a girl so wrong here?".

Mister Law shook his head. "Nope, just enjoyable to watch." he said. "Yeah, and watching you kiss Bepo on the cheek was enjoyable in itself. But watching two girls kiss him and hug him almost made me want to join in." Pip added. I looked at Pip like he was a creeper. Seeing girls hug and kiss a big ass teddy bear was cute. Seeing a grown man hug and kiss a big ass teddy bear was just creepy. For some reason, men did not get this. Then again, boys didn't get a lot of things.

* * *

><p>Cuervo could hear Avas foot steps running down the hall. When she finally appeared in the door way, she was holding a set of clothes. There was a tan jumpsuit, a black and yellow plaid bra, a black tank top, and a pair of black undies with yellow lace. Ava looked at Cuervo. "So do you want to be in those all day or do you want to wear some actual clothes?". Cuervo looked at the the clothes Ava was holding again then looked at what she was wearing. It wasn't a bad idea to wear some clothes that weren't stained with blood. Cuervo walked to the door way where Ava stood. Ava opened the door wider so that both of them could walk through. Cuervo accepted the invitation and followed Ava through the door.<p>

Law watched them as the two girls left the room. When the door finally closed he looked back at Pip, still smiling and Pip was still grinning. They looked at Bepo who was a part of the whole predicament, wanting to know what he had to say about it. Bepo just looked at the two curious men. "Why do you always get the girls?" Pip asked, almost breaking out into a laugh. Bepo just looked at him like he was speaking another language. "You mean girl bears?" Bepo asked, a slight pink coming up from under the white fur. "No, dumb ass!" Pip yelled. Bepo looked down in shame. "Sorry."

* * *

><p>Avas room was about the same size as the room she pulled me out of. It just looked a lot more roomy. There was only a desk, a bed at the end of the room, and a mirror. All set to rest against the walls and screwed to where they were. Though, the tampons everywhere was a little disturbing. I bet my ass that it would have been more disturbing if I was male. Ava had pointed out the direction of the laundry shoot, plopped on her bed, and watched me as I changed. Considering over five men, including the Celestial Dragon, had seen me shirtless I didn't really care if another girl saw me change. After a few minutes, I was in the clothes Ava had given me. They were a little big considering she was taller. Hell, her boobs were bigger than mine, but only by one size. So the bra fit nicely. "It looks good. Just a little big." Ava pointed out. I rolled my eyes because I hated it when people stated the obvious to me. The sleeves were a little longer than my arms, so they hung by a couple of inches. I wasn't about to copy Ava, so I unzipped the jumpsuit half way and tied the sleeves around my waist. Now I was comfortable. "Nice choice, almost better than mine. Almost.". Ava smiled as she said this. I smiled in return to say thank you. It was only polite, and I was still a little afraid of her.<p>

I heard soft thumps coming from down the hall getting closer. Must have been the crew. The door opened with a loud _slam_. I was right. The men stood in the door way in nothing but underwear and some in undershirts. Ava saw her crew mates and her smiled turned into a wide grin, like she was waiting for this. I looked from the crew to Ava and back to the crew again. "Penguin, are you having fun looking for your clothes?" Ava said teasingly. "Fun my ass. Give us our clothes back!" Penguin yelled.

"Why should I?"

"Because we need our clothes."

"Like you need your dirty underwear all over the floor."

"Fuck Ava, is that what this is about?"

"Yes Penguin, it is. It's just plain gross every time I go into the crews bunks and find dirty underwear all over the floor."

There was a flaw, a major flaw, in her argument. I looked around at the now clean floor. Ava had picked up all the tampons before I had changed. If she was going to teach these guys a lesson, she should be living by the morals she preaches. "That's our business." Penguin continued into the argument. "It's my business to if it's my turn to wake you guys up." Ava replied, calmly but a slight growl heard in the undertone. This scared the shit out of me. The only Ava I had seen so far was goofy, mischevious, and almost nice. But this one was annoyed and angry.

The memory of the article about the sheep and the marine came flooding back. I backed away a couple of inches. Penguin sighed and bowed his head. He wiped his hand down his face to that the skin was pulled with it. This argument was getting nowhere and he, including the crew, were getting chilly. "If we promise to put our dirty underwear in the laundry shoot from now on, will you give us our clothes back?" he asked. Ava smiled. I could tell she was thinking of the special place she had hidden the clothes. That dark, dark place that was sure to be dangerous without a flashlight. "Yes, you may have them back now. They're in the turbine room.". Penguin turned out of the room and I swore I heard him swear under his breath. The men behind him followed. I looked back at Ava. She wore a smile that was almost went to her ears. "I do not want to know." I said. I meant what was so bad about the turbine room that made Penguin swear under his breath.

Almost a minute after Penguin had left, I heard a loud voice all around me. It was Pips voice. "Dinner's ready, shit heads. Come and get it while it's hot!". I gasped. Did he always talk to the crew this way? My stomach growled again. The second time that day. I guess the sandwich wasn't enough. I looked at Ava and she looked like she was hungry too. Carrying all those clothes was a work out. So we nodded, as if we thought the same way, and made our way to the mess hall again.

* * *

><p>Law sat at a table with a bowl of soup on his tray and three chocolate chip cookies. "So captain, aren't you going to ask Cuervo how she escaped a Celestial Dragon?" Pip asked not lookiong away from the door, waiting for the crew. He was the only one who dropped his underwear into the laundry shoot. "I don' have to. The paper from yesterday explains that. Law pulled out a day old paper from his hoodie and threw it to the cook. From Pips curiosity, he looked back at his captain just in time to see and catch the folded paper. Pip unfolded the paper and saw the story on the front cover. <em>Celestial Dragon Brutally Murdered by Missing Slave <em>was printed on the front cover in big bold letters. "Holy shit, you know what will happen if the marines find out the missing slave is with us, don't you?" Pip asked, looking at his captain in shock. He wasn't shocked about Law keeping the girl in the sub, he was shocked that Cuervo had the stomach to kill someone, and a world noble at that. Law only slurped up the soup in his spoon and gulped down the liquid.

"Yes Pip, I do know. If the world government finds out she's on my crew, my reputation will grow." Law said blankly. There was no concern in his voice anywhere. Pip only chuckled. It was typical of his captain to not care about the government. Bepo just watched the conversation. Then the men heard the door open. In the doorway was Ava and Cuervo. Cuervo was dressed in Avas clothes, though the style was different. Cuervo had unzipped the jumpsuit half way and tied the sleeves around her waist, showing the black loose fitting tank top she wore. If Cuervo didn't have pale skin, she and Ava would have looked like sisters. They both contrasted each other just because of the different skin tones. "Hey, good job showing that Celestial Dragon who's the boss." Pip yelled to Cuervo, waving the paper in the air. Ava had some trouble seeing the articals title but finally found out about what it said. Ava looked at Cuervo in surprise and admiration. "You go girl.". "It's not that big of a deal, they're weak anyway. Can I have some food? I'm hungry again." Curevo said to Pip. "I heard her stomach growl as proof." Ava said, standing on her tippy toes and pointing at Cuervo.

Law smiled. "Guess the sandwich wasn't enough.". Pip chuckled and said "Sure, why not? Where's the rest of the crew, Ava?". Ava giggled. "Getting their clothes out of the turbine room.". Pip snorted. "Now that is punishment." he said. Cuervo picked up a tray, Pip filled up a bowl with soup, and slid the bowl onto her tray. Ava did the same. They both smelt the soup, Cuervo took a deeper breath through her nose. "This smells like something out of heaven. Thanks Pip." Cuervo said, her eyes lighting up. She was anxious to get the heavenly soup into her empty stomach. Pip laughed. This was the second compliment he'd gotten from this girl in one day. He already liked this girl. "Thank you for the lovely compliment and enjoy." Pip said with a kind smile on his face. Cuervo nodded and headed to the table where Law sat. Ava followed.

* * *

><p>I sat next to Bepo and Ava sat next to her brother. They looked exactly alike despite Ava's blue eyes. Law's were a storm gray. I dipped my spoon into the brown liquid and gulped it down. It did taste like something out of heaven. Then the door opened again and the rest of the crew poured into the room. All wearing their jumpsuits again. They did what Ava and I had just done. They grabbed trays and waited for Pip to fill the bowls and slide the soup onto their trays. But no one said thank you or complimented the food. They just sat a table a started eating, complaining to each other about having to find the duffel bags in the dark.<p>

Penguin and Scratch sat with us. After Pip was done serving the ungrateful crew, he poured himself a bowl and grabbed a spoon from the same rack I had gotten mine. He didn't even bother with a tray. He just came over to our table, filling in the last empty seat. The pirates around me had planned a game of poker and asked me if I wanted to join. I loved games, ecspecialy card games. So I agreed. After we were done with dinner, Pip gathered our plates, Ava and I being the only ones to say thank you, and brought them to the kitchen sink. It was someone elses turn to load the dishwasher and clean the pot.

About an hour into the game, I had a masive stack of loose change, nick naks, and to my surprise when it was brought out, a little baggy of green stuff. _"Is that...pot? What the fuck has this crew been doing?" _I thought. The little baggy scared me, just like everything in this fucking crew. Soon the game was over and I had nearly everything that the men had bet in the game. "What am I supposed to do with all this crap. And I have no desire for this." I said, picking up the little baggy full of pot by my forefinger and my thumb like it was a dead rat. "At least you won." Bepo said. I looked at Bepo. He was cuter than ever, looking so sad at his little puddle of lint and weird junk. "Oh!" I said. I pushed the large pile over to Bepo, including the pot. "Here, you can have it all. I don't want it anyway." I said with sympathy. He was so cute, I couldn't help it. "What the fuck, I'm like your best friend now, aren't I? Why didn't I get the pot?" Ava accusingly asked me. Despite sounding hurt, she wore a smile on her face. "Man. Lost a girl to a bear." Scratch said, smiling at the funny scene he was a part of. "I'm telling you man, fuzzy gets all the girls." Penguin said, smiling as well. Pip was laughing like he was being tickled. He fell over off his chair, still laughing. Bepo heard the word "girls" and looked up in surprise. "Girl bears?" he asked. I thought that was funny as hell. "No!" Scatch, Pip, and Penguin yelled. "Sorry.". Bepo was back to being cute.

* * *

><p><strong>The character Ava belongs to the author Antoinette Shakespeare of A Eustass "Captain" Kidd Story. I asked her for permission to use Ava on the condition I don't mess with her plot, personality, or abilities. She agreed and is rather excited to see the chapter. By the way, how did you like it? Please leave reviews, readers. I really love those. I want more of them and I only got one review for my last chapter. Please!<strong>


	3. Cinnamon, Parents, and Drinking

** In case none of you know, I run another story called Apoo and the Trouble Maker. It is a romance for Apoo and my OC. So chapters will be updated slower. If you like the character Apoo, do check out the story. There are a lot of grammar mistakes in the first couple of chapters. I cannot make any excuses that will justify the grammar mistakes. Lets just say that I'm too lazy to go back to all the documents and look through them. However, the grammar and spelling errors in my chapters have gotten less and less frequent. So enjoy the third chapter of The Butterfly Effect.**

It had been three days since I had woken up in the submarine of "Surgeon of Death" Trafalgar Law. Since I liked to hang around Ava, who liked to hang around her brother, I got to discover a couple interesting things about the captain of the Heart Pirates. He was lazy when there was nothing to be done. When everything was going fine and dandy, he would nap in odd positions in the hallway. Ava would normally yell into his ear if something came up. It would have to be something very important otherwise Mister Law would go back to sleep. I had no desire to give him a reason to hate me so I stood back while Ava tried to wake him up for just time passing. Although I couldn't blame her. We were in a submarine under water half the time so enemy ships didn't know we were there, not that we ran into many ships in the first place. Most pirates weren't making much progress into the Grand Line. They were either eaten by sea kings, captured by bounty hunters, or taken out by the unpredictable extreme weather of the Grand Line.

As someone who grew up in the Grand Line, I was used to the ever changing conditions of the Grand Line. I was also born at the end of the first half of the Grand Line. Not Saboady, but a couple of islands before that. So a the pirates that docked at my island were pretty strong. But the problem with them, they were the predictable type. Easily influenced by words and actions which meant you could control them. It was easy for me to get away when they chased me into a heavy forest filled with booby traps made by _moi. _People like Mister Law however, are the kind of people that scare me the most. They are calm, collected, and think through every variable of every situation. Plus, from what I had read about Mister Law, he had no qualms about killing people who got in his way. Many papers said that he had dismembered marine soldiers and put connected the parts in grotesque ways. Heads on top of legs, arms on thighs, even torsos on barrels or guns. Just picturing a scene almost made me puke. Blood everywhere and the dead eyes of a decapitated head sewn onto the knee joint belonging to another man. I was not looking forward to any battles Mister Law might take part of.

But over time, I began to get more comfortable being around Mister Law. He wouldn't do anything rash unless there were no other options. Or unless something would ease his boredom. I had learned quickly, and I was lucky to learn the easy way, that any Trafalgar that was bored was a scary thing. I had learned this from eavesdropping on the crew at lunch a day ago. Apparently, Mister Law had tortured a marine for hours by poking around his insides before he finally let him slip into the next world a few hours after he had started. And all because he was bored. This made me stay near Ava and keep her occupied. I didn't know what she did to ease boredom and I didn't want to find out. From what I had learned by watching mountain bandits, the women in the group were more blood thirsty and cruel than the men. So it didn't hurt to suck up to her. I always did as she told me and offered to do anything she seemed to have trouble with. Hell, she asked me if I minded doing laundry with her and I offered to do it all. Although she was happy about not having to mens laundry, she was also confused why I had offered to do such a disturbing job. She even asked me why. This is what I said. "Because I heard from your crew what your brother did to a marine soldier when he was bored and I'm not to keen on finding out what you do when your bored, so I'm sucking up to you so that I'm not your target when you want to ease your boredom.". Ava only laughed from my honesty. "Keep talking like that and I won't have to."

But other than that, here I am. Following Ava like a lost puppy as per usual while she tailed her brother who was on his way to the mess hall. It was morning and Mister Law always changed my bandages after breakfast. Yesterday he made some comments on how my wounds were healing nicely and at an abnormal pace. The gash in my side healed half way by then when it should have taken a couple of weeks for the healing process to get that far. I got a look at his eyes which held something mysterious in them. I couldn't tell if it was good or bad, but I saw curiosity in them. I was also curious. Just what the hell went on in this guys head? What makes him tick? I was more curious than scared, but still cautious. We got our breakfast as we did like all the other days. We grabbed our trays, Pip dropped out meal onto plates and shoved the weird looking glop onto our trays (Pip always sprinkled cinnamon on my oatmeal), I said my thank yous, and we sat at our usual table. Penguin and Scratch came in a couple minutes later. Ava banged on the doors to the crews room to give them the usual wake up call. She let me bang on a couple. Strangely, it was enjoyable.

As we were eating, Penguin got a look at my oatmeal and noticed a color difference between his oatmeal and mine. "Why does yours look better?" Penguin asked. "Because it is better." I said, looking up at him smiling. I figured out it was fun, and safe, to tease him with run around answers. "Whats on it that makes it better?"

"Something that makes it taste better."

"What is that something?"

"Something."

"Like what?"

"Spice."

"What kind of spice?"

"Spicy spice". Penguin was getting annoyed while Ava was giggling and Mister Law smiled, both enjoying the conversation. Scratch was getting impatient. He, too, wanted to know what was on my oatmeal. I could tell when he leaned his head back in frustration when I gave out answers that only brought another question. "Whats the name of the spice?" Penguin asked. "What do I look like? Betty Crocker?". By now, Ava was laughing out loud and Mister Law looked like he was about to do the same. Scratch banged his head on the table. I was disappointed when he didn't accidentally plop his head into his breakfast. Penguin, on the other hand, decided to figure out the answer himself. He grabbed his spoon and spooned a mouth full of my oat meal into his mouth. "Hey, that's mine!" I yelled at the food thief. Penguin looked into the direction of the kitchen where Pip was. Still plopping gunk into bowls and shoving them onto the trays of the crew.

"Hey jackass! Why aren't we getting any cinnamon on our oatmeal?" Penguin yelled, throwing the oatmeal covered spoon at the cook. Pip turned towards the yelling man and was hit dead center in the forehead, leaving a splatter of oatmeal on the rim of his hat. He fell backwards and onto the floor. "Cinnamon? What the fuck?" Scratch joined in. I wasn't about to let anyone else have my sweet sweet oatmeal without a fight. As Scratch was about to spoon out some of my oatmeal as well, I hit his knuckles hard with the back of my spoon since the knuckles are the most sensitive part of the hand. "Ow." He yelped, pulling his hand away and dropping his spoon. I stood up with my shoulders back, my back straitened, chin up, and fists clenched. "Try to put your grubby hands on my food again and I'll make sure I kick your nuts so hard you won't find pleasure in sex again." I growled. I had actually done it before. Last I heard, the poor bastard had to have his testicles removed and his dick shrunk down to half its size. His friends surely never let him live it down and surely no women wanted sex with a guy with the dick the size of a bite size hot dog. Scratch, thankfully, took me seriously and backed away holding the area he hoped to lose his virginity with.

This didn't stop the crew from retaliating against the cook. "Hey, we're your crew members. Why didn't we get any?" one asked. "Yeah, why does she get cinnamon and not us." Pip was on his feet now, glaring at the crowd of men around the gap in the wall separating the kitchen and the mess hall. "Why? Because she's the only one who complements my food and actually says thank you. She's like an angel in this gay hell, you ungrateful bastards." Pip yelled at the ever surrounding crowd of angry pirates. Pip wasn't scared, but he was intimidated by the crowd of men. He grabbed the shaker he used to sprinkle cinnamon on my oatmeal and held it up in the air. "You want this? You want this?" he teased the pirates. He threw the shaker quarterback style to the other side of the mess hall. "Fetch dogs!". At first, the pirates followed the shaker with their eyes until the shaker hit the ground. The moment the shaker sent out a _clang_ the crew rushed and dog piled the shaker, trying to be the first one to grab it.

The trio, Ava, Cuervo, and Law, watched this event take place and enjoying every minute of it. The tan pile squirmed as men tried to find and grab the cinnamon shaker. The shaker was tossed in the trios direction. Cuervo picked up the silver shaker and handed it to Law. "How can a couple of grams of cinnamon cause such a ruckus?" Cuervo asked, observing the scene. Law shook the shaker over his oatmeal, letting the heavenly spice fall onto the gunk in his bowl called oatmeal. "It's a guy thing. It'll end once everyone gets cinnamon on their oatmeal." he said. He handed the shaker to Ava and she did the same. "Yeah, this isn't the first time this has happened. Once they fought over the last piece of meat. They stopped the moment I had taken a bite out of it. I swear, these guys have no guts when it comes to facing girls.". Cuervo looked over at the squirming tan pile of men. They were not yet aware of the fact that the shaker had left the pile. Ava stood up and threw the shaker across the room for the crew to pile on top of it again, just for laughs.

Just like she had expected, as soon as the shaker made another loud _clang_, the crew repeated their ridiculous ritual of fighting for the cinnamon Ava and Cuervo heard a laugh and turned to see it was Pip, joining the trio at the table. "Where's Bepo?" Cuervo asked, noticing the big teddy bear did not join them for breakfast like he always did. The group looked around in curiosity from the question. "Do you think he collapsed from heat exhaustion?" Ava asked. Only a little concern was heard in her voice and the rest was just lazy assumption. "That seems the most likely possibility. Ava, since the crew is busy go to the control room and surface the sub. I believe we all need some air."Law said, finishing up his oatmeal. "But why me? Pip knows how to surface the sub." said. Although she answered, all of her attention was on the food in front of her, almost finished. "Because I trust you than the former rapist to teach Cuervo how to work the sub."

My eyes went wide with shock and looked at Pip who was now sitting next to me. He looked like a kid who was caught stealing a cookie from the cookie jar. I quickly shot out of my seat and switched to the seat beside Mister Law across the table where Bepo normally sat. "Holy shit, and that guy was puttin' the moves on me yesterday." I yelled. I held out my hand and used the other to start counting fingers and continued. "I saw pot, have a pirate captain who has a few screws loose for a host with an equally crazy sister," I said this while pointing to Ava. "A big bear that turns me into a marshmallow every time I see him,". Then I glare at the rapist across me and hold my arms out in front of me. "And now a rapist. A fucking RAPIST! What the hell is wrong with this crew?". After I vented I slammed my head down on the table.

Everyone went quiet, even the giant pile of men still fighting for the cinnamon Ava, Law, and Pip looked at Cuervo in surprise. All wide eyed at the sudden outburst of the usually quiet girl they had gotten so used to. They never, in the three days they had known her, heard her speak out her feelings like this. All frustration and anger that was bottled up had exploded all in one package. Cuervo always did what people asked of her and offered to do any job. The crew appreciated it, even if she only did it to give them a good reason to keep her in the sub and not throw her into the crushing water pressure around them.

Ava let out a long breath, eyes still wide with surprise. "If you think my brothers got a few screws loose, you should see yourself. I think steams coming out your ears along with a couple of your screws popping out by the dozens." she said. Law leaned towards his sister and smacked her up side the head. "Ow.". After that business with that was done, Law turned his attention to the now quiet Cuervo. Her head was still where she left it. "Cuervo, come with me. I need to change your bandages." he said. His voice actually held concern. Not the lazy tone he always used and the tone he wanted to use in front of his crew. Instead of waiting for Cuervo to sit up and get out of the chair, he looped his wiry arm around Cuervo's waist and carried her under his arm. Cuervo just let her body go limp and let him carry her. As Law walked out the mess hall, he turned his head and stared at Ava. "Do surface the sub. Like I said, we could all use some air. Including Cuervo. I think getting her outdoors will do her some good. We've cooked her up in here for to long, I think.". With that he left and slammed the door. Ava got out of her seat slowly and stretched her arms. She defiantly agreed with her brother. Being stuck in a small space with lots of people around you could effect your mental health.

I just let myself fall limp in Mister Laws hold. I didn't want to do anymore work. I was pooped when I went to bed last night and I was pooped this morning. Body heavy and everything. Lots of people around me and trying not to make them want to kill me was starting to get ridiculous. But getting a ride to my room was something that made me feel a little better. I felt several turns. Lefts, rights, turns in all directions, then stop. I heard a door open and was lurched forward again. Then Mister Law's other arm rapped itself around my torso and put me into a princess hold. I looked around. I was back in the patient room where I slept. Mister Law dropped me on the bed carelessly and I bounced on the spring mattress. Strangely, I found this, too, enjoyable. I never knew the bed was bouncy. But I was in too bad of a mood to enjoy the bouncy mattress for long. After a second of manually bouncing the mattress, I go annoyed of it. As he did for the last three days, he pulled out the big red box and took out the same materials. I took off the black tank top that Ava had given me and turned my back towards Mister Law like he always told me to.

The only thing that was different was, instead of unwrapping the bandages, he snipped them off with a pair of medical scissors He did everything else the same. The same thing with the ointment, the hydrogen peroxide, the big thin pieces of cotton, the new bandages, everything was done as they were done before. As I always did, I held my arms up to make rapping the bandages around me easier. Mister Law did this all very quickly for some reason but I didn't know what. I felt the submarine lurch upward and heard the metal around me groan. I didn't much about subs but I knew about basic physics. The metal groaned because it was being relieved of the massive water pressure around it. After Mister Law had finished rapping the bandages around my torso, instead of just leaving, he stayed where he was. I found that out when I turned to get off the bed. Mister Law looked concerned instead of his usual lazy "Do what ever you want" look.

He took my left wrist and placed his thumb where my pulse could be felt best. Something must have seemed wrong because he reached for the thingamabob that takes your blood pressure. He wrapped the cuff made of smooth hard fabric around my upper arm. Mister Law opened a drawer and pulled out a stethoscope, I knew what that medical tool was called, and he pressed the cold metal thingy, didn't know what that was called, on the inside of my elbow. He squeezed the pump several times until it was so tight around my arm that it kinda hurt. A couple of seconds later and the pressure around my arm released. Mister Law put away all the tools he had taken out in their respectable places. Then he looked at me. "Your blood pressure is a little over what it should be and with your little outburst in the mess hall, I say your body is experiencing mental and physical stress.". He tilted his head enough to still look at me in the eye and continued. "Is the crew and a captain with a few screws loose the cause of this?". Damn, he wasn't going to let me live that down. My shoulders slouched and I looked back at him with a face that said "Do you really have to ask?". I answered anyway. "Don't bullshit me. You know that's the reason why.". For some reason or another, we were both in sync. We both chuckled at my gutsy answer to the notorious pirate. I was surprised he didn't slap me, but I was so dog on tired worrying about not giving a reason to these guys to kill me. Mister Law calmed down and crossed his fingers in his usual manner in a slouched position, also usual.

"Well, if that's the case, my diagnosis to treat this stress would be to let you join our crew." Law said, peeking from under the rim of his hat. "What?" Cuervo asked, eyes opening wide and her body going into a position of full alertness. "You heard me. If you join the crew, all worries of the crew killing you will be gone. You'll be given an equal share of any loot we find or steal, you'll have a place to sleep, you'll get medical knowledge, and you'll also get to train in martial arts. But if you decline, I throw you into the next cyclone and be on my way"

"Well, I sure don't have any other option. Fine, I'll join your crazy crew."

"Good," Law continued as he stood up and walked towards the door. "We'll throw a celebration in your honor for joining. However, since drinking alcohol will effect your wounds, you are to stay away from any alcoholic beverages."

"Come on, just one?"

"No."

"Fine.". Cuervo said this while crossing her arms. _"Well, at least I can go to the party. And telling me he'll kill me if I don't join his was a pretty smart move. If I had been on land, I would have run in the other direction and never look back." _Cuervo thought, smirking. Law looked behind him at the smirking Cuervo and smirked in response. "The sub should have surfaced by now so put your shirt back on. I'd like to announce you're arrival into the crew when you're dressed."

So with a sigh, I put my shirt back on. I was looking forward for an occasion to show these guys my stuff. The last time I had a drinking contest, I drank twenty men under the table with two large bottles worth of vodka in shots and still wasn't tipsy. The most I could drink without dying of alcohol poisoning was four large bottles of vodka. I got up from the bed and followed Mister Law out the door.

The sub felt different from what I had grown used to. It felt like any other ship that floated above water, which led me to believe that the sub had surfaced. I felt a cool breeze from the corner we were about to turn into. Mister Law turned right and so did I. Like in a lot of stories, there was light at the end of the tunnel, but this one was literal. Instead of walking along with Mister Law's slow pace, I sprinted to the glowing light. Once outside, I looked around. I never knew how much I loved the clouds and the always changing breeze of the Grand Line. I swear, I was gay for five seconds. Hell, I thought I was ready to become a lesbian. Then I remembered how that worked out for my aunt on my moms side of the family. She was picked on and soon killed by a group of stuck up snobs.  
>My dad though, was scary. Mostly everybody didn't want anything to do with him, except my mom. She scared the shit outta him.<p>

All the men, including Bepo and Ava, were out on the deck. All of them were enjoying the daylight to notice my arrival to the deck. Then I felt the presence of Mister Law behind me. Over the three days with the ghost like captain ( he never made any noise when he walked) I had learned to tell where he was by sensing the sadistic aura he gave off. This aura made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up and gave me goosebumps. Mister Law put his hand on my shoulder, which made my skin tingle, and raised his voice over his chatty crew. "Listen up everyone!" he said. The whole crew stopped chatting and looked in our direction. "As of today, Cuervo is now a part of the Heart Pirates. Get the booze, boys. We're going to celebrate.". All of the men jumped and cheered with joy. I thought they only cheered because they had a reason to bring out the pot. But, sure enough because I'm always wrong, several men came to give me a welcoming hug.

Ava came over and gave me a big hug. Then I saw Bepo at the other end of the deck. Since I was a part of the crew now, I didn't have to worry. I ran over to the big ass teddy bear and gave him a big hug. But that wasn't enough. I did the same thing I had done two days before. I jumped up, hugged Bepo's neck, and kissed him on the cheek. The crew laughed, looking at the cute scene. "Why can't I get a kiss?" Scratch asked. "It's the power of being fluffy, Bepo gets all the girls." Penguin answered. Bepo looked up at the crew from me. "Girl Bears?". I let go of my hold on Bepo and fell to the wooden deck. I was laughing so hard that I had fallen and was now rolling on the floor. Mister Law and the crew laughed at the hilarious scene, Ava included.

Several men came up from the bowels of the submarine, bring crates of beer, rum, ale, and what seemed gods way of teasing me, vodka. Oh, how I loved vodka. My dad had started giving me alcohol when I turned ten to give me a head start in alcohol tolerance. He was a pirate so he didn't care about the governments drinking age policy. He gave me wine every day and when I was handle one bottle of wine, he gave me vodka from that day on. That was how I had gotten my tolerance up so high. But I raised it higher by hiding bottles of vodka under my sink when I turned thirteen.

Pretty soon, the whole crew was drunk. Penguin had tripped five times two hours into the party Scratch was trying to balance himself on top of an empty barrel. He fell of course. After Ava was finished laughing at poor Scratch, she pulled out the little green baggy that she had stolen from the winnings I had given to Bepo. "Who's up for getting stoned?" she yelled, holding up the green baggy in the air like it was a trophy. Several men got up, shakily, and made their way to Ava who had set up all the necessary materials for pot cigarettes. I wanted to be as far away from the group as possible, and the farthest place from them was right next to my new captain. I walked quickly to where he sat and plopped down next to him.

He looked at me with a smirk, teasing me with the vodka in hand. He seemed a little more friendly than when he wasn't drunk. He wasn't really drunk like his crew, but just starting to. From being born into the golden age of pirates, I saw a lot of men get drunk. From that, I found out men fall into three kinds of categories when they get drunk. There was the happy guy, the angry guy, and the obnoxious guy. Mister Law fell into the happy category. He looked around with a smile on his face then leaned his head back. "I hope we don't run into "Hawk-Eye" here. We're too drunk to take him on.". I looked down with a smile on my face. "You wouldn't be able take my dad on even if you weren't drunk."

After that sentence, Mister Law went into a coughing fit and whoever still had alcohol in their mouths spit it out like a spit take. Then the deck went silent and all eyes were fixated on me. It had taken two minutes for Mister Laws coughing fit to stop. After his last cough, he looked at me with wide watery eyes. "What?" he asked. I looked around. This was one of those awkward moments when you said something and either everyone else was laughing or looked at you like you said you threw a baby bird at a cactus. "Um, Dracula Mihawk is my dad." I answered, looking back at Mister Law. "How is "Hawk-Eye" your dad?" Scratch asked. "Well I don't know. Bang bang on a girl and here I am nine months later? That seems like the best possible answer." I said sarcasticly. I really hated stupid questions. Ava got up from her group of soon to be stoners and walked over to us, tipsy. She couldn't drink like I can. She began giggling like a maniac over the answer I had given Scratch. "Bang bang." she muttered and giggled more. She reached us and leaned on the railing next to her brother. She slapped him on the back then looked at me. "That's cool. Does the Government know? That would get us a bounty raise, ya know. Can I meet him? Actually, I'd rather not. He has a funny beard and his eyes frighten me. On second... or rather third thought, I would like to meet him. Yes." Ava said quickly. It took me a second to process her words in my head.

I shook my head from all the work being done and answered. "Yeah the government knows. Yes, you can meet him. If you want to meet him that badly I could always call him and say I miss him, which would be complete bullshit. Hell, I could get Shanks to come here, he knows me. He loves me like I'm family." Ava looked really excited when she learned I had connections to Shanks and ran inside the sub. I looked back at Mister Law and raised an eyebrow. "She's getting the Den-Den Mushi." he said in a low tone leaning towards me. Pip walked over and stood beside Law instead of me. I was glad to see that he was afraid of what might happen if he were to rape the daughter of "Hawk-Eye" Mihawk.

A minute later, Ava came running out with a Den-Den Mushi in both hands and set it down in front of me. She was excited to be able to meet a warlord and a pirate emperor and live to tell the tale. Now the whole crew was gathered around in interest, even Mister Law looked at me with inpatients. I rolled my eyes and picked up the receiver. I looked at Ava. "Which one do you want me to call first?". Ava jumped up and down like the reaction from a little kid that heard he was getting a present. "Oh, oh, do Shanks first. Do Shanks!". I smiled and dialed Shanks' number into the Den-Den Mushi. I was more excited about seeing Shanks again because he was more on the fun side compared to my dad. The Den-Den Mushi rang a couple of times before someone picked up on the other end. "Hello?"

I knew that middle aged voice anywhere. "Beckman! It's me, Cuervo." I said cheerfully. Beckman answered in the same tone. "Hey Cuervo, been a while since we heard from you." his voice got smaller but we heard what he said. "Hey captain, it's Cuervo.". I looked up at Ava and saw she was getting anxious to hear the voice of one of the great pirate emperors. We heard shuffling from the receiver being handed to someone else on the other end. "Hey, long time no see kiddo. How're you doing?" said a carefree voice on the other end. "I'm doing well, Shanks. A lot has happened though. Long story short, I was rescued by the Heart pirates when I was floating on a piece of wood in the middle of the Grand Line."

"Really now? And how did you get stranded in the middle of the Grand Line?"

"I escaped from a world noble and a storm split the dinghy I had stolen."

"A world noble?". Shanks had lost his carefree tone and was replaced with concern. "Were you hurt?" he asked. "I was, but Mister Law took care of me. He's been taking care of the brand mark on my back and the gash in my side. He said it's been healing up nicely. Would you like to talk to him? He right here." I said, looking over at Mister Law. I was curious of what he would say to Shanks. "Sure, I should thank him for saving a friends life."

"Okay, here you go." I said and handed the receiver to Mister Law. He took the receiver and talked into it. "Hello, it's an honor to speak with you "Red-Haired" Shanks." he said. I looked at him shocked. I had learned that Mister Law seemed like the guy to not care about being polite his superiors, but here he was. Being out of character and polite. "You're being polite to someone? It must be the end of the world.". My suspicions were confirmed when Ava made that comment. "Who's that in the background?" Shanks asked. "That's my little sister. Ignore her." Mister Law said without looking away from the Den-Den Mushi. "Well Law, thank you for saving my friend. But even if you were to give me your word that she'll be fine and that you won't hurt her, I'm still coming over there to make sure.". I jumped up and down with a wide smile on my face. I was going to see Shanks again after two months. I looked at the crew. They turned their heads, looking at each other in worry. Ava, however, was more than a little bit excited. I just hoped she wouldn't say anything stupid.

"Oh, and Cuervo." Shanks continued. "Yes Shanks?" I answered. "Your dad's here with me." he added. My eye's went wide when I heard my fathers voice come out of the Den-Den Mushi. "I hope you're doing well, Cuervo. I heard of the little fiasco with the murdered Celestial Dragon. By what I've heard of the conversation, I'd say that was your doing. Am I wrong?" he said in his usual fancy pants accent. "No, your on the mark." I said. The crew stayed silent for some reason when the conversation continued.

"What got you captured by slave traders?"

"Stuffed bunny."

"Emma too?". The moment I heard that question, my heart felt like the weight of the world was on top of it. I stayed silent. "Cuervo, what happened to Emma?" my father asked with very strong concern in it. I stuttered. It was hard to relay the event I was so ashamed of. Finally, I answered. "The world noble killed her before I escaped. I got her body out of there, but the cloth came undone and she went to the bottom of the ocean.". All eyes were on me now as everyone heard the new information.

Mihawk's expression went from calm and piercing to sorrowful as he heard of the painful news coming from his daughters mouth. "I see now. I was wondering why you would kill anyone. You were never the kind to hurt anyone unless it was justified.". Mihawk's tone did not change with his expression. He was never the kind to show weakness to just anyone. "Shanks and I will find you in do time. Until then, stay with the Heart Pirates.". "I joined the crew, so don't worry. I'm not going anywhere. And dad?"

"Yes?"

"I'm sorry." Before Mihawk could answer to her apology, she hung up. He smiled at her strength of will. Cuervo could face the most tragic of moments and be fine the day after. She knew she couldn't have done anything more and what's done was done. And once she cried her heart out, she would never cry about it again. Mihawk glanced over at Shanks. He was just as down as Mihawk. Shanks loved both the girls like they were family. Shanks put his right arm around his rival. "Why don't we drown our sorrows in drinks?" he said, his voice not being as cheerful as it normally was. Mihawk smiled. "Sure, that sounds like a fine idea.". Both men took up full mugs of beer and jugged them down and refilled them. They repeated this process over and over again until both passed out.

Both woke up with hangovers the next morning. Both gripping their temples as men yelled about the ship setting sail for the direction Cuervo's vivre card moved. Shanks sat on a barrel sitting in a corner on his main deck and Mihawk slouched in his throne in the weirdest and the most uncomfortable position. Mihawk followed the Red-Haired pirate ship as they both made their way to, what they didn't know the Heart Pirates sailed, the sub that Cuervo was going to call home.

The crew learned not to say anything to me about the ordeal I went through because I threatened to throw them off the sub if they did. After that, everything went on just as it did. I just waited for the day that I would see Shanks and my dad again. I knew they wouldn't shit about it because they knew me better than that. Ava and Mister Law didn't seem like the kind of people to hold sympathy for anyone no matter what the ordeal was. This was confirmed the morning after when they did as they normally did on mornings. I seemed that due to Mister Laws curiosity in my dad and Shanks, the sub wouldn't go under until they had visited us. They had to find the sub somehow and he didn't know how they were going to find us when we weren't on an island yet. Just for fun when he asked me how they were going to find us, I smiled and teased him with the answer "Doesn't it just annoy you when someone knows something cool when you don't?". He had asked me repeatedly the same question over the two week waiting period for my dad and Shanks. Finally, they were here. I wasn't too happy about seeing my dad, remembering what he used to call "Training me".

At the island of Bink, which we had waited for a week for the log pose to set and were on our way then to the next island which took several weeks to get to, Mister Law and the crew were anxious for the meeting of the famous pirates. Now, they were scared shitless as they saw the man that looked just like me and a tan man with red hair walk aboard the deck of the sub. "Shanks!" I yelled, running over to the real red head, comparing Kidd's hair to my friends crimson strands, and hugged him tightly. "Hey Cuervo. I missed you." He said cheerfully and hugged me back with his only arm. Just like I did with Bepo, I kissed Shanks on the cheek. Then I looked at my dad. He was still observing the men I would be sailing with from now on. Since I was now the only living family member he had, mom died giving birth to Emma, he was protective of his only daughter. Just for the heck of it, I repeated the what I had done to Shanks to him.

After I had kissed my father on the cheek, he looked at me with his piercing eyes. I was used to them so they didn't scare me. What he had in mind for payback later was what scared me, but in my mind, it seemed worth it. "Hey Cuervo, I got something for you." Shanks said behind me. I turned and saw him reach into his coat that was draped on top of his shoulders and pull out a stuffed rabbit. "Your not going to let me live that down, are you?" I asked, my arms still rapped around my dads shoulders. Instead of answering, he nodded his head in the direction of the crew behind him on the ship. Yasopp, Beckman, Roux, and the other crew members I had met before were holding bigger stuffed rabbits in an assortment of colors. "You guys are a bunch of assholes with too much free time." I yelled. The whole crew of the Red-Haired Pirates laughed and I laughed with them. They may not have let me live it down, but I got a lot cute things in return.

I let go of my hold on my dad and started introducing him and Shanks to the crew. After introducing them to most of the crew, there were only three left on the list. Mister Law, Ava, and Bepo. All were waiting at the railing on the other side of the deck. My dad stopped in front of Mister Law with a skeptical look. Shanks, however, said hello to my new crew mates with a warm smile and holding out his only hand. "Hey, you must be the man who saved my friend here. I thank you." Shanks said warmly. Mister Law, too, held out his hand and shook Shanks' hand. Mister Law tried to move to my dad, but when he didn't hold out his hand, Mister Law retreated his hand back to behind his head. "Hey dad, quit acting like your farts smell like tulips and shake his hand." I said. His pompous attitude to my new captain was annoying. While Shanks was snorting and giggling like an idiot, my dad reluctantly shook Mister Laws hand.

"So, this is Trafalgar Law and his sister, Trafalgar Ava." I said, pointing to the person who's name respectfully belonged to. Then I jumped on and hugged Bepo around the neck. "And here is Bepo, my biggest weakness in the crew." I lovingly said. Shanks laughed at me when I kissed  
>Bepo on the cheek. For as long as I could remember Shanks was always laughing. He was carefree and cheerful, except when he had a hangover. After introducing my dad and Shanks to my crew, Shanks brought out the booze. When I saw the green apple flavored vodka I whipped my head around to Mister Law. He looked at me with his usual blank stare and I smiled wide. Then he closed his eyes and sighed. "Go ahead, your wounds are healed.". I was so thrilled that I forgot about my policy of watching what I did around him and hugged him. And to top off the stupid shit list, I kissed his cheek. <em>"Fuck, what did I do that for? Cyclone here I come."<em> I thought as I stared wide eyed into space totally freaked. Mister Law just looked at me with, you guessed it, the usual blank stare. "Please don't pick up Ava's habits. One pain in the ass is all I need." he said calmly. Ava had overheard this while she was pulling out her secret stash of pot halfway across the deck. It was in a small hole that could be accessed through the lid in the deck or an air vent inside the sub. _"Really, Ava? Really? Pot? Now? Are you kidding? Now of all times you decide to pull out the pot."_ I thought. Back to Ava, she whipped her head around and glared at her brother. She got up, with the scary green baggy in hand, and walked over to her brother. She lifted her leg up behind her and thrust it forward, giving a good hard kick to Mister Law's shin. "For your information, Big Brother, I can't be a pain in the ass. If I was, you would have killed me off long ago, sister or not." Then she looked at me. "And what are you doing hugging _my_ older brother?" she said. I got the feeling she was getting territorial. "Why can't I hug my captain. And for your information, I was just so happy that I can drink alcohol again that I forgot my policy not to piss anyone, mainly your brother, off." I yelled. I was annoyed with her sudden territorial attitude.

"Okay people, who's up for a drinking contest?" Shanks yelled and held up a full mug of beer. This gave me an idea. "Okay, since you want me away from your brother so much, why don't we have a drinking contest. If you go out first, I can hug your brother as much as I want. If I go out first, you can do whatever you want with me." My father had heard this and looked over. I believed that he was also getting territorial over me. He seemed not to like the the idea of sharing me with Mister Law or letting Ava have her way with me, which scared me because she was on the sadistic and unpredictable side. On guys, that's a turn on for me but I had to be careful. Girls, however, were a completely different story. They were cold, terrifying, they would torture you heedless of your screams. In Ava, I saw all these things when I saw a wicked smile spread across her face and a sadistic gleam in her eyes. "_What the hell did I get myself into? She's going to kill me."_ After that thought, I smiled. It was one of those moments when people think of the most horrifying thing and then come up with a warming thought or a solution. _"Who am I kidding? This girl got drunk on ten vodka shots worth of beer. This will be a walk in the park." _For some reason or another I always measured alcohol strength in vodka shots. I have no idea why but it had become a habit. "Okay, that sounds like a deal." Ava said. She sounded confident that she would win.

So every person that wanted to join in on the drinking contest did because there was no cheating in coming in when most of the competition was gone. That was an unwritten law of pirates. This I had figured out from no one daring to enter a drinking contest halfway through in the two weeks on the sub. My dad joined in for hoping that he would keep me from losing the contest and be left to the mercy of Ava. He had read the newspaper article about the organ transplant with the marine. Shanks knew too, so we were all on the same page. Like my mom always said, the best way to win is to have an accomplice. They didn't know it, but I was using them to win and have my way. Plus, I was a little scared to find out what Ava would have in mind for me if I were to lose. But I was confident that I would win and I knew that both my dad and Shanks were heavy drinkers as well as the crew members around me. Not to mention some of them were pot heads, though I did not know how that would effect a persons drinking ability.

About fifteen minutes later, all of the Red-Haired pirates and the Heart pirates that had participated in the competition was down and out. Ava, Shanks, my dad, and I were the only ones left. Bepo dragged out any and all people that were on the floor from passing out. Mister Law treated them with glasses of water and headache medications for when they woke up. As for us, I was astounded that Ava had made it this far. She had drunk two vodka bottles worth of beer, she was drunk of course. I had gotten drunk on two bottles of vodka for a long time until I started drinking vodka on a regular basis when I had turned ten. Mom said that a womens best quality was outdoing whatever a man could do, and drinking topped the list. A couple of other things were on the list as well. Things like gambling, arm wrestling, sword play, and a lot of other things. I didn't have the talent nor the discipline for sword play like my dad, and I didn't have the physical strength or the skill for arm wrestling. But after mom had gotten dad drunk one night, she beat him at all these things. She was an amateur with a sword, but she beat dad easily when he couldn't hold his sword right. She also beat him at arm wrestling because his entire body was shaky and he couldn't think straight. She was good, no, amazing at gambling and could cheat like a pro but she didn't need to cheat because dad kept showing his cards to her intentionally.

Ava was tilting to one side then the other and a pink tinge was on her cheeks. This was a side of Ava I had never seen before. Vulnerable, heavily drunk, and so funny I was about to lose my concentration on keeping my balance and my mind. My mom had taught me how keep myself from looking drunk. If you don't look drunk, the people around you will lose their heads and go down. _Thump! _I look over to my right. Shanks was down for the count. He lay on the ground with limbs, not including the left arm, sprawled out and what was left of the beer in the mug was now all over his shirt. He was so drunk that he was giggling like an idiot. I looked over at my dad. He had learned how not to look drunk as well, but he wasn't as good at it as he was with a sword. In fact he was terrible, such a bad acting job. He just stared strait ahead and his eyes fixated on the railing of the sub. Just like a robot, he moved to slug down the newly poured in beer. But the mug never got to his mouth. _Splash! Thump!_

Ava and I both snorted and the carbonated alcohols squirted out our noses. I was amazed she had lasted this long. I was really tipsy but Ava was about to go down. By this time, I had gained a respect for Ava. She could hold her own when it came to alcohol and battle. On the last island a bunch of mountain bandits attacked us. There I had found out Ava had devil fruit powers. She could push or pull anything towards her as long as they were solid and were parallel to her palms. There was a catch though, her powers drained her more than other devil fruit users. Despite this, she could get rid of any that stood in her path. But not this, she would not get me out of the way. I was about to win. I was gonna-. _Screech! Splash! Thump! _And just like I was thinking, Ava fell to the wooden deck of the metal sub. She had leaned to far to the right and spilled her beer on herself when she missed her mouth. After that, everything went just as it did like all the other contestants. She fell to the deck with the left over alcohol from the mug all over the boiler suit that the Heart pirates wore. I just sat there. I was drunk enough to think this. _"Did I just win?"_. I was dumbfounded and just sat there like an idiot. I guess the alcohol had slowed down my mental process.

Then I heard the crew members behind me, that did not join the drinking contest and were not stoned from Ava's secret stash, cheer for me as I sat on the stool like an idiot. Penguin and Bepo came up beside me and hugged me. I looked at Bepo like he did something naughty. That was not the case, of course. I was just not thinking as straight as I normally did and I was so used to being the one who hugged him. I looked at him a long time. I was seeing a smile on his face. Along with being vulnerable to cute things, I was on the drunk side to top it all off. I smiled and hugged the bears head to my chest. "You're so cute, buddy. I love you!" I said lazily, emphasizing every y and o in the sentence slowly. The men around me, including Mister Law, laughed and chuckled. I heard my self, I sounded funny when I was drunk. Hell, everybody sounded funny when they were drunk. But I was drunk enough to do something I wouldn't have done when I was sober. I got off the stool I had been sitting on, walked over to Mister Law, plopped down on his lap, grabbed the neck of his shirt, pulled him to me, and kissed him on the lips.

Law opened his eyes wide. Of all the things he had expected Cuervo to do when she was drunk, this was not on the list. But Law was drunk himself since he had been drinking ale while enjoying the drinking contest. Law actually enjoyed the kiss for a few minutes. He slipped his hands down Cuervo's sides and pulled her closer to him. Her soft body met his thin muscular body. The moment they touched, Law came back to his senses. He softly pushed Cuervo away from him, disconnecting their kiss. Bepo picked Cuervo up by the waist of the boiler suit she wore and held her up about five feet in the air. She fell limp and went to sleep. The crew just stared at their captain, still wide eyed. "That was...different." Penguin said, shocked beyond belief. Law got up out of his sitting position on the deck and stood up. "If any of you repeat this to her father or red-haired, I'll make sure there will be hell to pay." he said sternly, pointing a finger and waving it to every crew member around that saw the event. They all nodded. Law sighed and looked back at the limp Cuervo being held up by the waist by Bepo. "Bepo, take her back to her room and leave some water and headache medicine on the desk for her.". Bepo nodded and carried Cuervo to the room she slept in still in her limp form. Law sighed. This day was the most eventful day since he formed the crew and entered the Grand Line. "Now what to do with "Hawk Eye" and Red-Haired.

** If any of you wanna see something in the story, tell me. I will decide if I wanna use the event or not. I don't want any OC's. I am open to any and all ideas for a log or short term plots. Please don't forget to review my chapters. I love reviews. I love them good. (Gir from Invader Zim)**


	4. No Privacy on Locked Secrets

**I hope you all enjoyed the last chapter, I know I did. Even though I'm the author, I read through the chapter and fell over in my chair and grabbed my sides because they ached. Literally! But I found out I only got three new reviews, that made me a little sad. So I want at least five new reviews for this chapter and all the new chapters to come. Come on cheapskates, it's not that hard to leave a review. You don't even need an account. Enjoy chapter four, jerks! (I am so sorry this took so long)**

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><p>Law sat beside his sisters bed as she slept off the alcohol in her system. She looked calm, innocent, naive, almost like a completely different person. This would throw off any poor bastard who decided to wake her up. She would give them a hard time with snappy comebacks and indirect answers or not answer any questions all together. And if she was immediate danger, she would have no qualms about having that threat wiped out. Ave stirred and her face crunched up from the throbbing pain in her head. She got up and smacked her face. "My head feels like shit." Ava moaned. A glass of water was thrusted into her view. She looked over to the direction the glass had come from and saw Law also holding a hangover pill in the palm of his hand. Ava snatched the glass of water and slugged down the clear liquid. She reached over to the pain killer in her brothers hand but he lengthened the distance between her and the pill. "What the fuck, Law! Give me the fucking pill." Ava whined. She would get irritated but the pain in her head would get worse if that happened, and Ava knew it. Law peeked from under his hat at his sister. "I think it would be better to take this after your stomach has ejected the existing alcohol that did not digest." he said in his usual calm manner. Just hearing the words that escaped his mouth seemed to activate Ava's natural immune system. Her stomach churned and her face paled. People say your face turns green when your body is sick, but really you're either pale, blue, or both. Ava quickly grabbed her mouth and bolted for her bathroom. Being a person of pride she slammed the door before leaning over the toilet and allowing the stomach acid to plummet into the oval office.<p>

Law watched the door that led to his sisters bathroom, listening to her pitiful state with a blank stare. It took three minutes for the alcohol to leave her system and five minutes to brush her teeth thoroughly twice. She came out of the bathroom slowly gripping her head. "Can I have the fucking pill now?" she asked sarcastically. "Yes, you may." Law said calmly and held out his cupped hand that held the pain killer. Without Ava noticing, Law had prepared another glass of water for after she vomited. The pain in her head made her forget her pride for just a moment to snatch the pain killer out of Law's hand and grab the new glass of water off the desk. She back hand shoved the pill in her mouth and slugged down half the water. She sipped the rest of the water into her mouth and spit it in Laws face. "That's disgusting, Ava." Law said, somewhat annoyed with a hint of disgust in his tone. Law used his sweat shirt to wipe off the water. Ava stuck out her tongue and growled. She was still grumpy from the hangover. Anyone would be grumpy with a massive throb in their head. It would take a little while for the drug to take effect. Ava gripped her temples and plopped back onto her bed. "So, um, what happened yesterday? Did I win?" she asked with a groggy voice. Law chuckled. "No, you didn't win. In fact, after you passed out it looked like Cuervo could still have drank a little more. But she passed out from the excitement of the day."

"Where is she now?"

"In my bathroom taking a shower."

"Why your bathroom?"

"Because the mens shower room is not a place for a naked lady and you needed your bathroom to vomit." No arguing with that logic. Even Ava didn't want to shower with a bunch of men and her brother was against her being with naked men. She also knew that she didn't want someone to ruin her relaxing shower with all the sounds and smells of vomiting and a flushing toilet.

Ava flinched. All that thinking made a wave of pain rush through her head. Then the Trafalgar duo heard a scream from down the hall followed by a sharp and loud smack. This made the male Trafalgar curious and look in the direction the sound came from. The female, however, cringed in pain as the loud screech hit her ear drums. A sudden stomping sounded in the hall way and Ava's door slammed open, revieling sweaty Penguin with a bright red hand across his face and pink cheeks. Ava snorted and Law just looked at his crew members pitiful state with a blank stare. The pain killer was starting to take effect. "What happened to you?" Ava asked, chuckling. "Um, I accidentally walked in on Cuervo." Penguin said in shame, bowing his head. "Are you saying you expected to walk in on me in there?" Law asked with surprise in his voice. "Oh, um, uh, no?" Penguin stuttered. Penguin stepped back a few paces. Then soaking wet Cuervo wrapped in a towel came into view. She reared her hand back and gave Penguin a good hard slap on his other cheek. "If you ever do anything like that again, I'll shove my foot so far up your ass you'll need surgery to remove it." Cuervo yelled and gave Penguin another good hard smack which sent him toppling over. Then Cuervo turned and walked proudly away back to Law's shower, leaving puddles of water in her wake. Ava laughed laughed hard and so did Law. Penguin just sat on the floor dumbfounded. "Holy shit! That girl can smack." he said finally.

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><p>The nerve of that guy. What person can't hear a running shower in a bathroom. I swore under my breath as I stepped back into the running water. The moment I left the bathroom to give Penguin a piece of my mind, goose bumps formed all over my body. The fact that I was soaking wet, was half naked, and running air was going throughout the sub made me more than a little chilly. But I had to let him know I don't take shit from no one from now on. Except for Mister Law, Ava, and Bepo. Mister Law and Ava still scared the shit outta me and Bepo was too cute to smack. The warm water soaked my hair once again and squirted some of Ava's extra shampoo that Mister Law had given me. I rubbed my hands together and scrubbed the banana smelling liquid into my hair. It actually smelt nice. The only reasons I could think of that Ava would have banana smelling shampoo and conditioner was that it was yellow or she liked the smell of banana. The ladder seemed most likely. I took my sweet time enjoying the smell of the hair products. I rinsed out the suds of the conditioner and looked around. I realized there was no soap for girls around. I saw a blue bar of soap resting on a soap rack. I backed away. "I do not wanna use soap that has been near his dick." I whined, holding my hands out in front of me to keep the soap from coming any closer. Then I looked back at Ava's shampoo. "Looks as if I'm gonna smell like banana today. Beats having pubic hair all over me. I'm sure Shanks would yell at him and dad would kill him if they found out." I grabbed the shampoo bottle again, squeezed out some of the liquid, and rubbed my body down forming banana scented suds all over me.<p>

I had done this in Ava's bathroom plenty of times. We had to share a bathroom and would soon share a room once Mister Law kicked me out of the patient room. Once the gash in my side had healed half way in three days the healing slowed down to a point of an unhealthy person. He said I was healthy and that he was curious on how my healing went from super speed to, what Ava said, a slugs erection speed. That comment made me laugh so hard my stitches came undone and blood oozed into the gauze wrapped around me. I still don't know if he was annoyed or just didn't care. He just had his usual blank stare and didn't say anything but to tell me to lay down while he disinfected the wound, needle, and thread. Ava looked at me like "Wow. That was smooth." It was like she was expecting me to make a move on him. _"He is handsome and defiantly knows about personal hygiene. He has good hair too, as well as-."_ My thoughts stopped suddenly as I noticed where they were going. "Whoa, what the fuck? I am not letting my thought process go in that direction. That spells trouble." I said. "What spells trouble?" a sudden voice said. "Holy shi-." I had no time to finish my sentence. I slipped on the tubs bottom covered in water and fell backwards. I grabbed on to the curtain, could mainly be called plastic wrap, and it ripped off the titanium railing that held it up. I fell into the tub with the water still running and only covered by a clear shower curtain that layered over my bottom half which could still be seen. I looked over at whatever bastard dared to make me look like a fool. It was Ava, laughing like a maniac.

Sadly, because it was only Ava, I found my situation to be quite funny. I started laughing too, trying to get up and fix the shower before Mister Law came back. I looked down at the gash in my side. I was one lucky son of a bitch because the stitches had survived my most ungraceful and stupidest moment. Ava came over and helped me up. I grabbed the towel that Mister Law had given me to use. It was one of Ava's and she had the _amazing_ idea to use her brothers colors and stitch their jolly roger onto the yellow fabric. I wrapped the towel around me, turned off the water, and helped Ava with cleaning up my mess. "Don't you know it's bad luck to scare someone on a wet surface." I giggled. "Yeah, for the victim." Ava giggled back. For the next fifteen minutes of putting back together Mister Law's bathroom, we didn't talk but giggled like idiots. We fell into uncontrollable giggle fits when one of us slipped and fell on our butts. "I'm guessing you forgive Cuervo for beating you?" Law voice sounded through the new open door way. I was on the floor and the small towel wrapped around me was open in a sitting position where in a normal situation people would see my panties. I put my legs down together tightly, closed the towel around me and yelled "Are you fucking kidding me? Isn't there any privacy in this fucking hell?" I grabbed the shampoo bottle that had fallen with me and threw it at the male intruder. He dodged and the yellow bottle and it hit the top of a shelf. All nick knacks that were stored on display there fell to the floor and the self followed, all the tightly packed books came out of place and everything plummeted to the floor.

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><p>Law appeared from behind the wall and examined the new mess. He looked back into his bathroom and examined the mess Cuervo made as well. Cuervo sat where she was with a look of horror plastered across her pale face. "Holy shit!" Cuervo said. "You are all for breaking stuff today, aren't you?" Law said with an amused smile and leaned against the frame of the door. Cuervo put her hand up in front of her and stuck up her middle finger at Law. "Fuck. You!" she said with emphasis on each word. Ava giggled like an idiot yet again and Law chuckled. Law turned around and left his room, but not without some final words. "You'll be the one to clean up the new mess". Cuervo looked over at Ava and Ava looked over at Cuervo. "This turned out to be a very eventful morning." Ava giggled. "Got that right. Your brother should consider himself lucky that I won't let dad find out that Mister Law is now one-hundred percent sure I'm a girl. He'd kill him if he found out and I don't think Shanks would be to happy either." Cuervo sighed heavily. "I guess I should dry off, get dressed, and pick up the disaster zone." Cuervo continued, taking Ava's hand and was pulled to her feet. "I'll help, I need to talk to you anyway."<p>

"I have a pretty good idea what it's about."

"You do?"

"Yeah."

"What?"

"About me kissing your brother."

"What!"

"Oh, shit!"

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><p>I cringed as I found out the fact that Mister Law had not told Ava about my blurry memory of what had happened yesterday afternoon or evening after I won the drinking contest, but I did. The deal was that if I won I could <em>hug<em> Mister Law as much as I wanted, not sexually harass him as much as I wanted. I waited for the punch to the face. When it didn't come, I opened my eyes to see what had happened. Only three words came to mind when I saw a smile and a look of admiration on her face and those words were spelled out slowly in my head. _"What the fuck?" _was the only thing that popped into my head. "Wow! Where did you kiss him? Cheek or lips?" Ava asked suddenly. Apparently she had forgotten the boundaries of our deal, and I was open to let it stay that way. "Um, lips?" I answered.

"How did he react?"

"I don't know."

"A peck or french kiss?"

"I don't know."

"How did it feel?"

"I don't know."

"Why do you keep saying "I don't know?""

"I was drunk in case you've forgotten. Ow!"

"What?"

"My leg is cramping." I said and sat down on the toilet lid. "Oh, let me look at it." Ava said and picked up my left leg. "Not that leg. This leg." I said sternly and pointed to the obvious shiny metal leg. It went up to my hip. "Oh! Well, I'm clueless about mechanics and engineering. By the way, how did you lose your leg?" Ava asked with much curiosity in her voice. _"Are you serious? You live in a submarine." _I sighed. I made a promise to my mom about keeping the incident a secret, but oh well. She knew I can't help but be honest when someone asks me a question. "Dad thought that throwing me into a jungle full of blood thirsty baboons was an appropriate training method. The master baboon, the one who can fend off my dad, yanked off my leg. I was just lucky that my dad actually got worried about me and followed me into the jungle. He knocked the fucker out and carried me home. Mom called up a friend of hers and was suited up with the prosthetic leg you see now." I told the story while drying off the steel wonder. I had to take great care in drying it off and oiling it. The ladder I hadn't been doing do to lack of supplies on the sub and no such shops that sold oil droppers or oil on the last island.

"With a leg like that, don't you need to adjust it as your body grows?" Ava asked. "Yeah." I answered. "My moms friend taught me how to adjust it on my own, but that means I have to remove my leg to do that. I should be oiling it everyday so that it doesn't rust. From the looks of things, the neglect is what caused my leg to feel like it's cramping." I said and pointed out the rusting metal in the knee. Ava took a closer look. "I'm lucky that it's not worse. If it were, I'd have to get new parts and that costs some serious money. With it just like this, I just have to clean it. This model was designed not to have openings. There's rubber that covers the openings in the back of my knee and every part that moves around." I continued, pointing the the black rubber behind my knee and the ankle area. Ava seemed to take a lot of interest in my metal wonder. I could tell because she was examining every aspect of it from the screws, nuts and bolts, hinges, rubber, everything. "You can take this off?" Ava asked pointing to it and looking at me. _"Figures, everybody wants to teas me by playing keep away with me when they have my leg. I bet a million belli that she will do that next time I need to adjust my leg."_ I thought and rolled my eyes. "Yes, but I'm not detaching my leg until I need to adjust it." I stated. I did not feel like exposing myself to any more unnecessary humiliation. Ava put on the puppy dog look, too bad that I was immune to it. "No!" I said. Ava still went at it. "No!" I said louder. She gave up, thank god. "Fine." she pouted. I finished up drying off my prosthetic leg and stood up. I would have to clean it later. "We should get this mess picked up. You did say that you were going to help me." I said. Ava was a girl known to keep her word, for good things and bad things. She got up and started the pick up while I dressed back into the usual boiler suit with a new tank top and under wear.

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><p>Law walked back to the deck through the dimly lit hallway. The walk was filled with men still commenting on the party yesterday. "I can't believe Ava lost in a drinking contest." one said. "I still can't believe Cuervo kissed the captain. He seemed to enjoy it for a little while." said another. He couldn't argue with that. He hadn't been kissed by girls very often, only three that he could remember, because Ava made sure that they would be too scared to get close to the group of pirates while they were in town. She made it a habit of talking out loud about organ transplants and surgical procedures that only a person with a masters degree in medical school would know. That scared the shit out any one who happened to hear her. The only reason that the three girls he remembered got close enough to kiss him was because Ava was forced to stay in the sub do to watching over the stoned crew. A girl minus Ava plus alcohol equaled a very inappropriate evening. He kept it a secret from Ava about losing his virginity when they were still in North Blue. She still didn't know. But knowing Ava, Law knew that a drunk friend kissing a brother and not a whoring slut having her way with him was acceptable to his sister.<p>

Law stepped out of the bowels of his submarine and came face to face with the dreadful face of a hungover crimson haired pirate captain. Law had been warned by Cuervo not to do anything that would upset a person with a short fuse, because Shanks was not the most pleasant person to be around when hungover. Not that Mihawk was anymore pleasant when he had a pounding headache, but Shanks was on the dangerous side when he didn't have a close relationship with someone. Cuervo could do pretty much anything to Shanks and he would just beg for her to quiet down and leave him alone, but with a new acquaintance like Law he would be thrown into the ocean and be left to die. Law gulped and a small drop of sweat ran down his nose. Shanks only moaned. "What's with the racket? Have some mercy." he said gripping his temples. Law chuckled, reached into his pocket, and pulled out a small white paper bag. He opened the packet and shuffled out two little pills. "Here, it's my homemade pain killer. Works faster than any brand name pain killer." he said and held two little green pills in his cupped hand. Shanks grabbed the little green pills and stared at them. He peaked up at Law, and Law gave him a reassuring smile. Shanks smiled back and gulped down the pills. "Ugh! _Cough Cough. _Bitter! _Cough._" Law chuckled. "Yeah, I should have warned you. But at least your migraine will be gone in a couple of minutes." Law explained.

Even though Shanks was hung over, he had begun to warm up to Law right away. Cuervo's warning didn't make sense now. Shanks did not give Law any reason to be afraid in his grumpy state. He just acted like any other calm hungover man. There was no sign of anything that would make someone think that he would do anything awful to them. "Cuervo warned me about provoking you when you're hungover."Law finally said after a few moments of thinking. Shanks looked at him and smiled. "Yeah, the last guy that provoked me when I was hungover wound up in the hospital for a month. At least that's what I heard from the newspapers, my memories a little blurry." Shanks admitted. He almost sounded sorry for the guy, almost. "Wow, your medicine really works. I feel a lot better already." Shanks wowed. "By the way, what was all that racket?" Shanks continued. Law closed his eyes and thought. _"Should I tell him what happened? Maybe just not tell him the bad details." _he thought. He peaked up at Shanks. "Cuervo slipped in the shower and more than a few things came tumbling after." Law answered. Both men laughed at the ridiculously funny answer. Suddenly there was thumps from a tumble deep within the sub.

* * *

><p>I was laughing so hard I couldn't breath. Ava had found my tickle spot and she was going to get what she wanted with it. "Admit it, you like my brother. You love him." Ava said joyfully. Oh shit, how did she know what was on my mind? All I said was "Your brother seems like the guy I would want to hang out with." Then again, I did feel a heat in my cheeks as I said it. "I -ah ha ha ha- didn't say that." I yelled. It took all my effort just to get words out. "Not directly, but you said it. Now admit it before I make you admit it in front of the entire crew, including my brother." This, I knew she would do. "Fine. Hah ha ha ha ha. You win. Just -ah ha hah ha- stop!" Ava stopped and pulled her hands away from the left side of my pelvis. For some reason it was only my left side. When people touched my right side it felt offending. I couldn't explain why but it did. Shanks accidentally did one time and he woke up the next morning with wet sheets when I was six. I stuck his fingers into a glass of warm water. I sat up and looked Ava in the eye. I didn't know what she was thinking or how she would take it. But it was either tell her or tell the whole crew and Mister Law directly. "Okay, I like your brother. I wouldn't call it love yet, I don't know for sure."<p>

"Wanna know for sure?"

"No!"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure." I just hoped that Ava would respect my wishes. Yeah, not going to happen. I was going to have to watch myself and not give her any openings to do anything. I looked over at Ava and saw she was pouting with her arms crossed. _"Grow up!" _I thought. "Well, are we going to finish cleaning up this mess or sit around like idiots?" I asked. With that, Ava and I set back to work, but not without something falling on my head from the newly stood bookshelf and Ava laughing her butt of at my poor luck today.

* * *

><p>After fifteen minutes, Law and Shanks had managed to get Mihawk to swallow the fast working pain killer. A few minutes later, though Mihawk wouldn't admit it, he actually felt a little bit better. Law did not need Mihawk to tell him that his medicine worked, he knew that already. But it would have been enjoyable to Law if the father of one of his crew actually admitted it. With a man as stubborn and as powerful as he, it could be considered a rewarding commitment for the average dimwit. "Finally we got you to take the damn thing. Are you always this stubborn against people helping you?" Shanks asked accusingly but with a smile on his face. Mihawk glared at both of the men, but Law was the only one who gulped. "Hey, don't worry my friend. If Mihawk tries to do anything to you I'll personally teach him a lesson in not hurting Cuervo's friends." Shanks explained joyfully and patted Law on the back. "I don't take threats from one armed has-been's." Mihawk scoffed. "Maybe, but would you rather respect Mr. Trafalgar or endure Cuervo never forgiving you for hurting her new captain and probably never letting you hear the end of it until the day you die from being killed in your sleep?" Shanks asked. He knew Cuervo well and the news paper article about the murdered Celestial Dragon confirmed his suspicions. Cuervo would take vengeance or destroy any threat to the people she was close to. Shanks remembered the time when a war dog trained to resist and combat against haki had nearly ripped his other arm off. Cuervo butchered that poor hound. That day had haunted him since, the day when Cuervo slowly and painfully tortured it heedless of its cry's and whimpers.<p>

Shanks shuddered. Apparently Mihawk had remembered the scene as well for he had been there, and a shiver ran down his spine. Law looked at both men curiously, unaware of the blood curling event that Cuervo had taken taken part of. A temper so uncontrollable that both Beckman and Yasopp had to work together to hold her down. Shanks even had to use haki to render her unconscious to get her under control. When she woke up the following day, she had no memories of the event. Mihawk and Shanks wanted to keep it that way, but taught her many ways to control her emotions and tactics to stop a fight as quickly and cleanly as possible. She was only ten when this took place. The trio heard a screech from around the corner and Ava and Cuervo came into view.

Both men looked at each other, concern in both of their eyes. "Hey dad. Why do you have sweat running down your cheek?" Cuervo asked with nothing but confusion on her face. Mihawk looked back at his daughter wearing a mask of no concern. "Oh, I must not be used to the humidity level right now." he answered. "Are you done cleaning up the mess?" Law asked the two girls. "Yes, but Cuervo wants to do a little extra cleaning." Ava answered and nudged her head in the direction of her companion. "Why?" Law asked. "Brownie points." Cuervo answered. After Cuervo's answer, the female duo walked past the male group to the other side of the sub. Mihawk and Shanks looked at each other, as if they were speaking through telepathy. Law did not like the new mood around him. Worry, concern, and thought emitted from the tan and pale companions. Law did not like when the feeling of worry came with a fact that he did not know; it irritated him to a point that he would get twitchy and his mind would become unstable just from the thought of not knowing.

Like a kid who would first hear of a dead body down by a river that would soon be removed from the area. The mere thought of seeing a dead body up close drives him into insanity. The lust for the sight of blood splattered across the tree trunks, hair tangled to a degree that it seems unnatural, the lifeless eyes that held its last emotion of horror and extreme pain, the ripped open stomach and slit throat, crushed and mangled limbs of the pale body. He yearns for the feel of its cold skin, the bone slivers gushing out of a limb, the smooth surface of its cold glassy eyes. The want to look away but curiosity controlling the weak will. The desire to see something so grotesque that a person just couldn't look away. The insanity from the thought of seeing such a thing makes the kid want to see it more.

Law wanted to know they knew; he wanted to see that grotesque body that kid had imagined. He had to know. But from the look of things and how they were panning out, he would know before anyone left this spot. Shanks and Mihawk both turned to Law simultaneously. "Look, Law, there is something you should know about." Shanks said in a low tone and rubbed the back of his neck. "It concerns Cuervo." Mihawk explained. Shanks looked back in the direction Ava and Cuervo had gone. They were coming back carrying a broom, dust pan, bucket full of soap water and a mop. Both girls walked past the group and made their way back to Laws room inside the sub. Both men let out a massive amount of air that they had held. "I think it would be best to tell you the whole story, starting from the beginning."Shanks stated. The trio moved to a vacant part of the sub and Shanks began the story.

_ Ten year old Cuervo prodded down a brick road, humming her favorite pirate tune she had heard Shanks' crew sing often, Bink's Sake. She couldn't recall the lyrics, but she knew the tune. Shanks, Mihawk, Beckman, Roux, and Yasopp followed behind the little girl talking about topics Cuervo was too young to understand or know. Five years before this, Yasopp made the mistake of telling how great it felt to play with his wife in the presence of five year old Cuervo. "What does that mean?" she asked. Mihawk, her mother, Shanks, and the rest to his crew ran away snickering and laughing, excluding Mihawk, while Yasopp was left alone with young Cuervo to make up a fake meaning of what he meant. He came with the idea (an idea that everyone laughed at because it wasn't too far from the truth) that he and his wife were playing leap frog. "So babies come from a game of leap frog?" Cuervo asked innocently, looking up at Yasopp with big innocent eyes. "Yeah, that's it." was all Yasopp could say after an hour of thinking. The men laughed at the memory while they followed ten year old Cuervo down the brick street._

_ All were unaware of a marine ship that had just docked on the south side of the island. They were unloading kennels that housed war dogs trained to fight and resist haki. A marine accidentally tipped a kennel that housed a very vicious dog that had Shanks' wanted poster ingrained to his memory. The kennel door snapped off its hinges and the dog made a break for the town. The dog found his way to the main street and got a glimpse of the back of Shanks' head; he did not pay much mind to the red head and continued with his search in the allies._

_ Cuervo's mother took Cuervo out shopping for new clothes while the men spent their time in a tavern down the street. Her mother pulled out numerous dresses and dress shoes, all either pink or white with a ridicules amount of frills. Cuervo knew her mother meant well, she just wanted her mom to start treating her like her age, like a ten year old. "Mom, I'm too old for that stuff. You know Shanks will just tease me if he sees me dressed in that."_

"_But it's cute."_

"_It was cute when I was in preschool."_

"_Fine, here." her mother said and pulled out a pair of folded shaggy jeans. They were black and were made to look like they had holes and scrapes. Cuervo smiled and pulled a hanger that held a blue cotton tank top that had the numbers 0 and 5 printed in white on the back football style. Her mother smiled. Over the short span of five years, Cuervo quickly became a tomboy from spending so much time with the pirates._

_ Cuervo worshiped her mom for her boldness, intelligence, snappy comebacks that seemed to shut anyone up, and being able to scare the shit out of a warlord and a pirate emperor. Cuervo loved the way her mom looked and longed for her genes. Her long chestnut colored hair, peachy skin, bright blue eyes, a tall and curvy figure which Cuervo had hoped would be one of the traits she would pose in the future and the pirates knew it. Her mother had tied her waist long hair into a tight braid and slapped on a white ball cap on her head. She wore a brown leather vest only held closed by thin but strong lases and black Indian style skinny jeans that somewhat resembled Killers. Heavy black boots with an iron heel covered her feet, which intimidated Cuervo._

_ "Before you go of into the dressing rooms," Cuervo's mother interrupted. She pulled out a little black leather corset with two inch straps and very thick lases that covered the torso to the belly area, a yellow plaid mini skirt, and thigh high zip-up black leather boots with yellow ribbons. Cuervo blushed at the ridiculous outfit her mother would surely force her to wear in front of Shanks and his crew. If Cuervo wanted something, she would have to embarrassed by her mother as payment. Cuervo wanted the tomboy clothes enough to submit to her mothers demands and put on the outfit as soon as they were fitted and payed for. Cuervo walked out of the clothing store blushing, feeling the stares of every man around her. She heard many whispers about how a girl her age would dress in such a manner. Cuervo wasn't even sure why her mother would put her in such a ridiculous outfit without any curves to show._

_ Except for when she was a toddler, Cuervo always had short hair. Without any hair to work with, Cuervo couldn't hide her face. All she could do was hunch her shoulders and bow her head in shame. The female duo entered the tavern the pirates had said to meet them and all laughter and chatter stopped as soon as Cuervo walked through the saloon style door. All the eyes of the Red-Haired pirates were on her. Cuervo swore that her entire face had heated to a bright red. "Your cheeks are almost as red as my hair, Cuervo. I have to admit, if you were a little older in that outfit I'd give you a long kiss." Cuervo looked up in confusion and saw Shanks, as well as the rest of his crew, blushing. Cuervo stuck out her tongue and made a disgusted face. "Kissing. Gross!" she said disgusted. The crew laughed._

_ Cuervo heard her mother laugh and put a hand on her shoulder. It was soft like silk and slender. "You'll think getting a kiss from a guy will be heaven pretty soon, Cuervo." "I'll make sure the bastard doesn't come within five feet of her." Mihawk growled and glared at his drinking partner. "I was just kidding." Shanks laughed. "Well, it's time for me to head out. I promised a friend I would meet her at the next island." Cuervo's mother announced. "See you at the mansion." Mihawk and Cuervo said together. Her mother turned around and waved goodbye without looking back. She disappeared into the bright sunlight._

_ "Go change into the other outfit you bought." Mihawk demanded. Cuervo spotted the entrance to the restrooms and bolted for the heaven she was waiting for. Cuervo disappeared behind the oak door and the men heard the door latch shut and lock. "It looks like Cuervo hated that outfit." Shanks said cheerfully. Five minutes went by and the restroom door opened. Cuervo reappeared in a blue cotton tank top jersey, shaggy black pants, and blue tennis shoes. The two previous outfits were tied in the plastic bag for no one to see._

_ Cuervo spent two hours listening to the pirates tales of adventure and Yasopp's usual tale of his little boy back in his home village in East Blue. His name was Usopp, a boy around five years her junior. When Cuervo had complained about hearing Yasopp's tale for the thousandth time, Yasopp shoved his empty glass mug over her head and spent the rest of the time pulling off the mug until the pirates were ready to go back to the ships._

_ The malicious dog wandered around for hours trying to find the red headed captain, until he turned his head and saw a group of humans. He examined all. One man with locks and "Yasopp" tattooed on his forehead. Another was a pale man with a long open tail vest and a large christian cross shaped sword at his back. Then there was a middle aged man carrying a long rifle. The dog continued his observations and growled; he spotted the red head. The dogs ears reared back and the dog got ready to sprint. It shoved off at the unsuspecting captain and chomped onto the captains only hand, tugging vigorously._

_ Shanks was caught completely off guard. He tried to use haki on the dog directly, without harming civilians or Cuervo, but the dog kept at it unfazed. Crew members began to punch and kick the dog, not wanting to kill something in front of Cuervo, but the dog kept tugging harder and harder. Shanks yelled in pain when several bones in his hand were broken and breaking. Cuervo began to cry. She was more scared than she had ever been in her life. More scared than when the giant baboon loomed over her and began ripping her to pieces. Then everything seemed to fall silent as Shanks noticed a very different atmosphere. It was cold, skin crawling, and blood curling. Mihawk could feel it too. Both men noticed that Cuervo fell silent._

_ A crack emitted from Shanks' shoulder and he yelled in pain once more. A blur went past Shanks and over the dog. A whimper that would have surely made a small child cry escape the dogs mouth as something had knocked its jaw right out of its place and across the road. Cuervo was in front the blood dripping dog, silent as death. She lunged forward and dealt the dog an upper punch which sent him flying and landed on his back. The girl sat on top of the large dog and reared her arm back. She thrusted her arm at the dog and her hand ripped inside of his rib cage._

_ The crew nor Mihawk could believe what they were seeing. Even though the dog was dead, Cuervo yanked out the dogs heart and blood covered the girls body. Civilians were screaming and reporters taking pictures. The Red-Haired pirates took action without any order, they separated Cuervo from the dead hound and tried to hold her down. She struggled kicking and screaming like a demented child. She couldn't hear her father telling her to stop or Shanks telling her to calm down. Beckmen and Yasopp were losing their hold on her. Shanks had no choice, he used haki and the little girl fell limp. She was asleep._

Law didn't expect that. He didn't know that Cuervo at the age of ten could be capable of such a gruesome event. "She didn't tell me any of this." Law explained. "It's not that she didn't, she _can't_. She has no memory of the incident." Mihawk stated. He was sitting on a left out barrel with his legs crossed and arms folded. "She was in a trance the whole time. We did as much as we could to keep anything like that from happening again. We taught her how to end a fight quickly and cleanly, different methods of controlling her emotions, anything." Shanks explained further. Both men were concerned, but Law was curious. He wanted to know how something like that could happen. As a scientist of some sort, he couldn't just sit by while his curiosity scratched at the inside of his skull. He had to find out how to draw that side of Cuervo out into the open, but not with her warlord father and pirate emperor family friend about. "I'll be cautious." Law lied. Even though he didn't lie often, he was good at it. The notorious men stood up reassured by Laws lie and stretched. "Well, we should defiantly go. My crew and I get a little antsy when we stay in one place for too long." Shanks grunted through his stretch. "I would like to stay longer and make sure Cuervo stays safe, but I don't feel like helping by being caught with you and raising your bounty." Mihawk growled. "Don't have to worry about that," Law continued. "I'd rather get my bounty raised by my reputation or by crew members with high connections." Mihawk didn't much mind the last part, for if Cuervo had high connections she would stay useful to Law.

* * *

><p>The moment Ava and I had finished cleaning Mister Laws room thoroughly, which meant every nook and cranny of the room, we traveled back to the upper deck. We talked and giggled about yesterday. Before I was about to open the door to the upper deck, Ava grabbed my hand and looked me in the eye with a slight blush. Remembering what Ava was capable of, this scared me enough to wish for death. "Um, could I ask you a favor?" she asked. This was going somewhere but I didn't know where the train was headed. I saw those Trafalgar wheels turning again, but they were turning in a different direction than where they were normally turning. All I could tell was that they were not turning into the sadistic or mischievous directions. "Uh, s-sure. What is it?" I asked, nervous of what she'd ask. Catch her brother in the act, see me naked,- "Could you get Shanks to hug me?" or that. A wave a relief washed over me. "Oh, sure. I can do that for you. Why?"<p>

"You're kidding right? It's Captain Shanks we're talking about here, and every girl alive wants to hug him." This was a side of Ava I had not seen. She may have seemed like a sadistic, mischievous pirate, but at the core she was still a girl. My mom was just as crazy as Ava right now about getting hugs from Shanks. "Okay, okay. I'll get Shanks to hug you, as long as you get your brother to willingly hug me."

"Why would you want a hug from my brother?"

"You're kidding right? It's your brother we're talking about here, and every girl alive wants to hug him." I probably didn't do the brightest thing in the world, but I had to tease Ava sooner or later.

We opened the door and saw my dad hopping over the railing onto his little boat and Shanks about to board his ship like his other crew members. Mister Law and my crew members were seeing them off. Shanks caught sight of Ava and I and walked towards us with a smiled on his face. "Sorry to cut the visit short Cuervo, but my crew and I need to get going." Shanks said and ruffled my hair as he always did when he was sorry. I lurched forward and hugged Shanks tightly. He returned the favor and hugged me with his arm. I didn't forget my promise to Ava. I put my lips next to his ear and whispered, "Ava wants a hug too." I don't know how to explain it, but Shanks is one of those people you can only read some of the time (like once in a month) but you trust him completely. I trusted him to know that Ava asked me for the favor and trusted him to give my sadistic friend a warm hug. Then I felt like I was being watched, or someone near me was getting the stink eye. I looked around for the cause of my senses going on full alert and saw Mister Law staring at my red head friend.

It was the same lazy look he always had. But something in the air got the adrenaline pumping into my system, the hairs on the back of my neck to stand up, a chill down my spine; and it was all coming from the man who threatened to throw me into the next cyclone if I didn't join his crew, _with the exact same look_. All with the same look he always had. Today I still swear that he and his sister could shake someones hand warmly and poke someones eye with a scalpel with the same look in their eyes. Must run in the family.

When Shanks let go of his embrace on Ava, he turned and ruffled my hair once again. After unexplainable untangling his fingers from my really short hair, he looked back at my captain wearing his usual smile; as if completely unaware that death was painting a target on his back and blankly glaring daggers into his back. But I knew Mister Law was smart enough not to do something as stupid as attack a pirate emperor with his equally dangerous crew in a ship right next to his sub; plus he knew that Ava would only squeeze the man so tightly to get on his nerves. I knew because Ava had made this obvious several times in the several weeks I've been on the sub.

Around fifteen minutes after my dad and the Red-Haired pirates departed and were now out of sight, the feeling of stink eye had long left the air and was replaced with the usual feeling of home. The new feeling I had now about this sub filled to the gills with pirates was completely different from the feeling of paranoia when I first woke up in the room with organ infested shelves and a puffer fish surprise at the window. Now that I was getting used to the crew, and this was required of every crew member, I was to learn biology, anatomy, basic first aid, and martial arts. Ava would teach me basic first aid, the crew would teach me martial arts, and Mister Law would teach me biology and anatomy. God knows how the sadistic duo will teach me anything that has anything to do with the human body. I could tell, at the least, that it was going to be very interesting in the next couple of months.


	5. Struggles of Professor Law

**Well, here's the sad truth. So far I'm getting no ideas on how to continue the next chapter of my other story, Apoo and the Trouble Maker. If you have any ideas whats so ever that you need out of your brain because it's been pounding at the inside of your skull, please leave a two paragraph intro to get me started. If I like the intro, I'll use it down to the last letter and continue on from there. Please, I'm desperate. Enjoy chapter five!**

_"Oh god, shoot me now" _Why was I thinking this you ask? Imagine yourself with the most annoying laid back genius in your life teaching you stuff on biology that you can hardly keep up with. Mister Law, _my_ annoying laid back genius, is teaching me the parts of a eukaryote cell (animal cell to narrow it down a notch because both plant cells and animal cells are eukaryote cells. Slight difference I'll tell you about later).

It's been a week since my father, "Hawk-Eye" Mihawk in case you have forgotten, and my crimson haired friend, Shanks, left to go back to the New World. Ever since then, my life has been living hell all over again. I thought I was done with school when I graduated from Ikio Boarding School. I never got to go back home since I was dragged there, literally I might add, but my parents always made it habit of checking up on me and visiting me on the holidays. Even today I wonder why my loving parents would drag a stubborn pouting girl into an all girls school. I hated women. I mean, sure I loved my mom; but women are always the cause of something truly horrible.

When they don't like someone, they make up fake gossip. It's not the fake gossip that annoys me, it's the way they lie before they do it. I swear I heard some annoying hag say this, "Well, I normally don't like to gossip, but..." Yeah, right! I'll bet a thousand berri that that same hag spread gossip about you giving your best friends man a blow job at her wedding, thus ruining your relation ship with you former BFF. Now with guys, it's such a different story.

When women accidentally pull their arm back and break another girls nose, the hitter could say sorry over and over again and the hittie would say she did it on purpose, that she is lying; thus bringing the argument into a cat fight. But with guys, they forgive each other. They might get into a slight disagreement over whose to blame, the good kind meaning each trying to take full responsibility over the accident, and be best buds from that day forward. I may have learned this on video snail alone, but mom said it was true and what mom said went, until I found out where babies really came from as apposed to the white lie Yasopp told me. And women keep grudges, men don't. Say you and your spouse get into an argument about, oh lets say, Junior had a bad report card. The man starts saying how the boy can't be trusted to do his homework without someone over his shoulder when out of the blue from your so called partner, who is defending the boy saying he is a little slow in the particular subject, says "You know, I trusted you once, until you brought home a whore" For all the women who are reading this saying that the guy was wrong, think of it like this. Over all of the women he had fucked over the years, he chose to marry this women. Get the picture?

Back to the hell I'm living in now, Mister Law was going over the rough and smooth ER, or endoplasmic reticulum. He might have said something about it storing proteins for later use and the difference between the rough and smooth, but god, I couldn't keep up. I had asked repeatedly for him to slow down and guess what, he does the direct opposite. On top of that, I couldn't focus. All I could focus on was spinning a paper clip with my fore fingers. But while doing that, I could take in Mister Laws words more clearly. I don't know why but I seem to listen better when my eyes are trained on something, but I could never actually focus if I look at the person who is talking. If I did, all I would hear would be blah, blah, blah.

Ava observed me from atop her bed, waiting for her turn to teach me her lesson she had planned today. I had been moved to Ava's room, resulting in making her bed into a bunk bed because there was no room for two separate beds and a desk; the room was too small for that. After the two beds had been welded together, curtsey of Penguin and Scratch, the two of us had argued over who would get which bunk. Ava wanted the top bunk and so did I. We were just like little kids when it came to this. We couldn't decide based on reasons because we had none, so Penguin took a one berri coin out of his pocket. We got the point and called our sides. I got tails and Ava got heads. Penguin flipped the coin, caught it, and slapping it down on the back of his hand. He peeked under his hand, giving us no clue who had won. "Well, who won?" Ava asked, almost bouncing with anticipation. Penguin lifted his hand to reveal the coin. Tails! "Yay! I win." I yelled in victory. That night, I found out there was no latter so Ava enjoyed watching me struggle to get to my own bed and laughed as I found out physically that my bed needed railings.

I looked at the timer behind Mister Law, who was enjoying the position as a professor, ticking down the last minute of hell. Right now he was babbling about the last and most important part of of the cell, the nucleus. It held the chromosomes which held DNA for offspring and new cells. In sex cells, there were twenty three chromosomes, one copy from a pair from each parent. Now I knew how babies were made on a molecular level, and something tells me there was more to come,

_Brrrriiiiiiiiiiinng!_ As soon as that timer went off, Ava and I shot up and ran out the door. Before the steel door closed behind us, I heard Mister Law give some final words of the days lesson. "Good-bye to you too." And it just so happens that situations like this make me feel like shit. Great! I slow down and look back at the faint yellow glow flowing from the room Ava and I shared. I looked back at Ava and saw she new what I was thinking of doing. She heavily sighed and looked at me with a smile. "Go ahead, go give him a hug or something. Just make sure that if something happens, a kiss is as far as you go. I'll be waiting with the crew for your CPR training in the mess hall." Ah, what better place to practice CPR than the mess hall where anyone can stop breathing after choking on something. Ava ran off into the direction of the mess hall while I turned around to go give Mister Law an apologetic hug and help him pack up his books.

I opened the door to find Mister Law trying to pick up many books, several falling every few seconds until finally they all fell to the floor. He smacked his hands to his sides and looked at the pile of books. I huffed, went inside, and started picking up the books. I read out the names in my mind. There was The Secrets of the Human Heart, Cells: The smallest Form of Life, Mysteries Unveiled:The Truth of Disorders. "I thought you wanted to get away from my lessons." Mister Law said as he bent down to pick up more books. Of course he had to make me feel bad about the whole situation. "Well it's kinda hard to keep up when you kept speeding up. I wasn't interested in this kind of thing in the first place so it's kinda hard to focus." I continued to pick up the medical books when I came across something that was not of the category. The title read History and Legends of the City of the Dead. When I saw that title, I wore a smile that went all the way to my ears. My tickle spot and cute things were just my weaknesses, but history and the unknown world of the dead could get me to have sex with the devil and fold Ava's underwear. Apparently Mister Law saw my reaction and looked at the book I had found. "You like history and legends of the dead?"

"Maybe."

"If I put in a bit of history in my lessons, will you be able to focus better?"

"Add problems with mitosis that can cause death and it's a deal." Good lord, those siblings were getting to me. Mister Law chuckled. "I think that can be arranged, and there is an island in our chosen path that is home to the legends in that book." When I heard that, my brain went haywire from many things that I might find. I imagined finding the lost book of the living that was said to be in that city, the same place where the book of the dead was.

Everyone on the Grand Line knew the basics of the legend; how the books were made of pure gold, could bring back the dead, curse the living to eternal hell, give eternal life, send the dead to the after life, all kinds of things. If I found those lost books, I'd be famous for my own actions. No more being known as just "Hawk-Eye" Mihawks daughter, but as the person to master life and death just by reading spells from thousand year old gold books. But that fantasy would more than likely never come true. There was no evidence that the language would be the same as it was now. The school I went to may have taught me ancient hieroglyphics of many languages (it's an expensive school thing) but I was rusty then, who knows what good it would do now. Only one way to find out.

"Ga, where is she? She's late." Ava grumbled. She was getting impatient waiting for Cuervo to attend her little joke in a lesson. The point of the lesson was to teach CPR, but what good was emergency CPR if the rescuer refused to do mouth to mouth with a person with bad breath. So Ava was gonna use Penguin. Ava knew that he had eaten a salad with red onions for lunch. There is a point to the lesson, it was just going to be really funny. Penguin only agreed to do this because he would be getting a kiss from a girl, one way or another. He was raving about it to the crew at that moment. "I'm getting a kiss from the daughter of a warlord. How can my life get any better?" Ava, being the person that she is, answered this proudly with "A kiss from me." "As tempting as that sounds, I'd rather take my chances with a sea king than your brother." Penguin explained as he backed away. Things liked to happen on a ship when Ava was around, and Penguin wanted to give Law no reason to kill him, reason being true or not.

Everyone in the mess hall quieted down as they heard familiar stomps coming towards the door to the mess hall. Penguin and Scratch pulled up their sleeves and timed Cuervo. Since they were the ones training her they had to make sure she was getting better. They made her wear 25 lb leg weights to improve her leg strength, but that was the only part of the training she knew. They timed her from the moment they heard her foot steps to the moment they saw her. It was slow progress but she was getting faster. Nothing special about her learning capabilities in martial arts. It took the whole week for Cuervo to perfect the basic high kick. It was slower than the rest of the crew had learned the first basic move but at least it wasn't a lost cause.

Cuervo slammed open the metal door and the hatted duo hid the watches while keeping the time memorized. Ava had been eager to start the lesson, so she grabbed Cuervo by the arm and pulled her to the wide area Ava had chosen for the lesson.

"What's going on" I asked. Ava looked at me with a look of mischief. "You're going to learn CPR and mouth to mouth."

"Isn't that the same thing?"

"Depends. They have different names but I think they are the same thing. They both save lives."

What Ava said was true. I just wondered how I was supposed to perform mouth to mouth with a dummy. Then I saw Penguin on the floor ready for CPR training and the whole crew of the Heart Pirates were there to observe the lesson. "Wow Ava, you picked the perfect dummy." I jokingly said. "Hey!" Penguin accused. "Laugh while you can, giggles. Penguin had onions a couple of minutes ago." Oh lovely! I hated everything about onions: The smell, the look, the taste, everything. Then the door I had just emerged from closed and every person turned to see who had entered the room. Mister Law decided to observe the lesson as well.

Knowing Ava and what she had found out about my present feelings for the captain, something told me that there was going to be a change in dummies. "Hey Law, can we surface the sub for this lesson?" Ava asked with her smile still on her face. "Sure, I want some air too." Law said. "What? What happened to in here, Ava?" Penguin asked. Sounded like he was just as confused as I was, including the rest of the crew. "Change in lesson plans." was all Ava answered with. "This doesn't sound good" I whispered to Penguin. "I'm thinking the same thing." he whispered back. I scrunched up my nose and made a fake gag reflex. "Oh dude, you need a Tic-Tac." I gasped and ran towards the head of the group where Ava and Mister Law led. Then Penguin yelled to me. "Hey, wait, what's a Tic-Tac?"

Soon the sub was at the surface of the Grand Line and all of the Heart Pirates were on the deck confused but anxious to see why Ava had changed where the lesson would take place. Mister Law stretched out his arms to enjoy the fresh air while it lasted, as did I. Mister Law perched himself on the railing. Ava walked over to her brother with a wide and mischievous smile plastered across her face. "So Ava, why did you change the lesson to be performed here?" Mister Law asked, obviously curious like the rest of us. "This." Ava answered before shoving Mister Law off the sub. "Shit, Law!" I yelled and jumped into the ocean after him. I knew he had devil fruit powers from the newspapers I've read, so I knew he couldn't swim.

"Ava, are you trying to kill your brother?" Penguin accused. Ava banged his head in annoyance of his stupidity. "Oh please, do you really think I would put my brother in any real danger? Cuervo knows the basics of CPR; if she does something wrong, the first-aid team will be here to fix it. If Cuervo can't swim, which is highly unlikely, you and Scratch go and get them. And if a sea king comes along, that's why I'm here. I thought of every variable. Why do you think I made sure everyone was here on the deck?" Ava stated matter-of-factually. Then she noticed Penguin and Scratchs jaws hitting the floor. They remembered Cuervo had 25lbs strapped to both of her legs. "What the hell is wrong with you guys?" Ava asked. "Oh shit, Cuervo's being pulled down by 50 lbs on her legs." Scratch whimpered.

Avas eyes went wide by surprise of the new fact. "Well don't just stand there, go get them!" Ava said almost in tears. "Yes ma'am." both Penguin and Scratch said in chorus and dove into the water to save their captain and their friend. Ava watched the surface of the water in worry. She was almost in tears from her mistake and about if Penguin and Scratch hadn't remembered the leg weights on Cuervos legs, she would have lost both her brother and her room mate.

Both Penguin and Scratch surfaced with Law and Cuervo in tow. Cuervo coughed and gasped for air while Law was not breathing. "Cuervo," Ava yelled, voice cracking. Cuervo took attention to Ava on full alertness. "You're going to be the one to perform mouth-to-mouth to save Law." Cuervo nodded; she was fully confident she could do it. She had been taught the basics and had succeeded in performing CPR on a test dummy. Now it was going to be used in action. Penguin and Scratch quickly pulled aboard the soaking duo and Cuervo immediately set to work.

She put her ear to Laws chest to listen for a heart beat and feel for breathing. A slowing and faint heartbeat, but no breathing. Cuervo moved to the head and straightened out Laws neck so that the wind pipe would be fully open. She put both hands together and placed them to where Laws heart was. Cuervo pushed down hard to get his heart to pump as well as push out any water in his lungs. When all of the water was out of his lungs, Cuervo plugged Laws nose, took in a deep breath, put her lips to his, and blew. His chest rose as the air entered his lungs but he still didn't breath. To keep his heart from stopping, Cuervo once again pushed on his chest to keep his heart pumping. On the fourth push, Law shot up and coughed and gasped for air.

Cuervo jumped and began to cry. Meanwhile the crew began to cheer for Cuervo. It was without Cuervos knowledge that the crew considered it a rule that one must successfully perform CPR and mouth-to-mouth in action to formally become a part of the crew; but no one besides Ava saved the captain with CPR.

Law continued to gasp for air until he noticed Cuervo sniffling beside him. He looked at her with a blank expression then smiled. "What," he said. "Were you worrying about losing the man you love?"

I couldn't believe it. He just said what was in the back of my mind. I felt myself blushing so much that my entire face was red. Mister Laws smile grew wider with amusement when I felt myself blush. _"That jerk, and in front the whole crew too."_ I thought. I felt the stares of the crew and saw some gaping mouths behind my captain. I reared my fist back and gave him a punch to the nose. Guess observing the training of the crew paid off because that punch hit its target full force. Mister Law leaned backwards and face palmed his face to hold the now blood dripping area. "Ass, welcome back!" I yelled. My tears were now on my face. I stood up and stomped my back to the bowels of the sub, and for a little added flourish I slammed the metal door shut as hard as I could.

The whole Heart Pirate crew watched Cuervo stomp her way back into the sub, and when she slammed the door they cringed. Law chuckled and wiped the blood from his nose. He was amused by her guts and how she had saved him, but there was another matter to be taken care of.

Law got up and made his way to his sister. He stopped in front of her and stooped over to make sure his lips were at her ear. "Ava," he said with a blank expression. Ava went on full alert too late when she saw her brothers hand in front of her face. Law face palmed Ava over the railing and into the water. "Payback." he finished. Law stuck his hands inside his pockets and he too made his way back inside the sub. "Penguin, go get her." he ordered before he closed the metal door. Penguin groaned and jumped back into the water.


	6. Chapter 6: Christmas Special

Let me tell you something, when the Heart Pirates celebrate Christmas, they go all out. Ava said that every year her brother keeps the sub afloat so that they could decorate it. Guess what, the crew had a little inside competition of who puts up the best light show on the sub. Being a ship full of engineers, electricians, and men who knew a little bit of both, something told me that all of the light shows were going to be better than fireworks. Ava chose a different team to join every year and so did Mister Law. Though, he told me to stay out of the competition because they needed a judge to decide the winner. I was kinda down because I wanted to help with all the cool decorations. The planning and the decorating went on for the whole month of December.

Ava had joined a group of four, including her. The three other men wore the same jump suits but each member of the crew had their own facial features. Old Gravver, the oldest member of the crew, had scruffy features all over his face. His beard, his eye brows, and his hair were all gray with a few white streaks here and there. He wore a squashed, brown leather, worn out old top hat and smoked a pipe every time someone saw him. Some of the time tobacco won't even be burning inside his pipe; it was always inside his mouth. He often lectured Ava and the others about doing pot and how it didn't even compare to good old tobacco.

The other two were albino twins, both very different personalities. Mitch –the morbid one- is sarcastic, rude, and very, very temper mental. Mister Law kept a close watch on him the moment he started losing his temper around Ava and I. Mister Law told me never to provoke him if I was ever left alone with him and to do exactly as he says. I was to give him no reason for him to harm me. Mister Law didn't have to worry about Ava as much, for he knew Mitch was more afraid of Law than he hated Ava; no one knew why he hated Ava so much when she did not do a thing to make him hate her so much. I wasn't about to ask him why and Mister Law found no reason to press into the matter.

Jordan, however, was happy, cheerful, loving, rainbows and unicorns kind of guy. Every time I saw him, he was always smiling. Occasionally he would pull some harmless pranks on me, like taking my compact when I wasn't looking. I would turn back to where I left it and found it somewhere else. After he had set down whatever he had taken, he would hide somewhere nearby and not help but snicker. The first time he had done this I literally thought the sub was haunted until I heard snickering coming from the closet. The moment I opened the door, Jordan burst out laughing which made me burst into laughter along with him. He loved to hang around me do to always laughing at his pranks and jokes. Both wearing red berets.

Both of the twins were knowledgeable in manipulating electricity and Old Gravver was practically a master technician and engineer. Ava was the designer of the light show. No doubt in my mind that Ava had some trouble with Mitch as he was prone to complaining about every single thing that came out of Avas mouth, ideas and thoughts being the prime targets.

Soon enough, the hallways were no longer dimly lit with just the white light bulbs near the roof, but with red, green, pink, blue, purple, and yellow lights with garland that made sure no wall was left undecorated and gray. In bare feet, my real foot padded and my prosthetic foot clinked against the steel floor. The lights around me had cast all of its colors on me and reflected off the floor. Christmas day had come that day and I was trusted to judge the light shows fairly. Truth was, I was tired. I spent half the night finishing up wrapping the presents for the crew. In the crew, it was an unwritten law in the crew that everyone had to get each person one present We docked at a winter island a few days ago and that was where the entire crew bought the presents I trusted Ava to guide me to a trustworthy medical store and pointed out which medical tools were the best and which tools her brother needed at that moment.

I had asked Ava why her brother needed new tools often. "With a sub that gets rocked around a lot by ocean currents or sea kings, things get misplaced and tend to stay that way for a while." Ava explained and shook her head. "I've told my brother hundreds of times to get something to store his shit in, but he never listens." So it was new surgical tools and a metal holding kit that I had gotten for Mister Law, but it was Mitchs present that was the most expensive; I had gotten him an iPod. Ava had one and had her own computer to download music on. Ava let me use her computer to download songs, illegally, that Jordan knew his brother liked. Strangely, Mitch found comfort in religious heavy metal and classic rock music. I was actually expecting rap or something in that area. I even got him head phones that would block out all but the loudest of sounds.

For Old Gravver, I had gotten him a new antique pipe. I had the jolly roger of our ship carved into the green granet bowl of the pipe which connected to a finished cherry wood mouthpiece with his name engraved into the wood; all this was for a pretty decent price considering it was custom made. The old man was worth it because, unlike Mister Law and Ava, he knew exactly how to make me feel better after Mitchs emotional turmoil. He even taught me that I needed to get to a point where Mitchs emotional bullying didn't actually bother me instead of pretending it didn't. The last time Mitch started giving out his shit, I shoved words right back into his mouth. He left me alone after that, besides his usual complaining.

And I couldn't forget my dad and the Red-Haired Pirates. I had gotten their presents months ago due to how long it took for travel snails to get into the New World. I mean, dude, they're snails.

I walked outside only to be bitterly welcomed by bitter cold night air with Ava wrapped snugly inside her usual snow coat she had kept from North Blue while I had absolutely no snow coat anywhere. "Merry Christmas!" she cheered. Then her brother came into view behind her with a coat in my size along with mittens and fur boots –fake fur, of course, because of Bepo.

"We open presents first before we start the light show." Ava said cheerfully.

"The perfect present would to get rid of this snow."

"You don't like snow?"

"I hate it!"

"How do you hate snow?"

"Simple, it's cold and people like to throw it in your face."

"Anyways," Mister Law interrupted. "I have my Christmas for you, Cuervo. And it looks like you need it now." By the time he had finished his first sentence, I was chattering loudly and heavily shaking.

My feet were the first to get covered as one was about ready to start getting frost bite from the cold metal. Mister Law helped me into my new coat and I put the mittens on myself. Oh, it was like I was sitting in front of a warm fire place wrapped up in a big white marshmallow blanket. I smiled and hugged Mister Law. "Thank you, Mister Law. I feel so warm now." Law repaid the favor by giving me a big bear hug that I didn't know he could give. He seemed too slender for that. Then Ava joined in, hugging the both of us. "Don't you just love Christmas?" Ava smiled as she said this.

All of the crew was gathered around the giant Christmas tree in the middle of the deck. Unlike a normal tree, it black plastic screwed into a hole in the middle of the deck with yellow plastic bulbs, garland, and other tree decorations. The obsession with making everything look like bumblebees, even on Christmas, was just weird. Even the wrapping paper was black and yellow. It looked like a bee hive had thrown up all over the tree. It didn't make sense with all of the other colorful lights inside the sub but only black and yellow outside. I think it was a reputation thing with these guys.

Starting with age before beauty, Old Gravver got to open his presents first. This crew made sure that it was only one person opening presents at a time so that that person would know right away which paper was his and to throw it in the giant garbage bag prepared for this particular day. The Santa of the year (it was Penguins turn) had to go through the almost ocean like pile of presents to search for the twenty-nine presents for that particular person. Old Gravver was wrapping paper challenged, just like me, so I did not join the rest of the crew in telling him to hurry up. He unwrapped every present carefully to make sure the paper did not tear in any way. Poor man got nothing but odd nick knacks and souvenir T-shirts. He often moaned and complained about his crew mates being cheap bastards but thanked them anyway. "It's the thought that counts, even if it does not count for much." he mumbled and proceeded to my present.

I was bouncing up and down in excitement, waiting for his approving face. He looked at my badly wrapped present with confusion. I was really bad at wrapping anything so the whole crew could tell the present was from me without even looking at the tag. Like all the other presents, Old Gravver carefully unwrapped my present with many mistakes in the process. The paper was ripping and tearing in all directions. So in the end, he ripped it apart just like any other person getting a gift. He looked at his new pipe with wide approving eyes then looked at me and said with a smile "It's the thought that counts, and it seems yours counts for a lot more than these cheap bastards. That excepts the captain and the other young lady." Ava and her brother both crossed their arms and nodded with pride. Ava had gotten the old timer a black silk top hat and Mister Law had gotten him a personalized tool box with every tool you could think of that had a computer lock.

Law was next; all of the crew took great care in getting the captain of their crew great gifts: sword polish, tool cleaning kits, and new tool trays layed beside Mister Law in a pile. He got to mine and smiled with sarcastic delight. "Your wrapping is terrible, Cuervo. Where did you learn how to wrap presents?"

"Oh, shut up and and open it, will ya?"

Mister Law opened his gift and saw a stainless steel case about arms length long with a dented in inscription that read: "Trafalgar Law: Do not Touch" He smiled and opened the case which revealed every surgical tool a surgeon could ever want along with polish and sharpening tools. He wouldn't say "Thank you" aloud, but he did send me and approving gaze that said it for him. It sure as hell beat the socks that Old Gravver gave him.

I stopped paying attention to the ritual until it got to Mitch. For some reason or another, I was more eager to gain his approval than anyone else. He opened every present (which was pretty much crap besides Mister Laws present and Jordans) with rolling eyes and a grumbled "Thank you" He didn't say much when looking at my wrapping paper, but when he put on a shocked expression when he saw his new iPod and headphones I wished I had brought a camera. "Whoa, someone loves you." Penguin commented, looking at his pile of mostly cheap junk. Mitch shot him a glare then turned a gaze at me. His attention turned back to his new iPod and browsed the music. Much to my excitement, he smiled right at me that shocked every person and the crew and made their jaws drop when he said "Thank you" Once he had thrown away all of his paper and gathered his junk, he carried it all to my side of the circle and plopped down right next to me, much to my surprise. "I think you might turn out to be a tranquilizer for the hot head." Ava whispered loudly on my other side.

"Shut up, whore." Mitch yelled

"Can it, or I'll stick a knife up your ass." Ava replied.

"Can we keep Christmas jolly and unsadistic, please?" I interrupted before this argument turned physical and before Ava actually stuck a knife up someones butt. There was no doubt in my mind that Ava might actually try it. Better for it to be a marine and not on Christmas day, otherwise god would have a heart attack.

Both bloodthirsty pirates crossed their arms and pouted on both sides of me while the Christmas ritual continued. Bepo got all sorts of stuff that you would see a bear wearing in a circus or a little girls bedroom: there were bows, hats, tutus, slippers, and other kinds of things that should have put his pride to shame. He didn't exactly see what the crew was doing to him. All I had gotten him was a really long orange scarf. Scratch had gotten many playing cards and a few pairs of dice, two of which reached the number twenty-four. Scratch told me that he wanted the giant hole in his hat fixed with a result that didn't look like it had come out of surgery. This I was somewhat good at, I had done a novice job on the hole but Scratched said he liked it better than Avas try at it. I imagined that Ava _had_ made it look like it came out of surgery.

I was the youngest of the crew so I was the last to open my presents, right after Ava (I had gotten her a book full of gory horror stories). Much to my surprise after seeing what everyone else got, I had gotten some pretty cool stuff despite not knowing if I would use them. I had gotten: oil and oil dropper for my leg (from Old Gravver), dog tag with our Jolly Roger engraved in it (from Scratch), fully equipped tool box (from Penguin), my very own tan jumpsuit that actually fit me (from Bepo), the book I had taken interest in a month ago (from Mister Law), a fancy mask in the shape of a crow (from Ava), a book on electricity (from Jordan), and a lot of other cool things. The last present was from Mitch and I saw him scratching at his fingers when I picked it up. I carefully unwrapped the present like Old Gravver did and opened the little black box. Inside, there was a pair of black painted gold wing earrings and a little black heart locket with the Jolly Roger carved into the gold which made the Jolly Roger contrast the with its coal like surroundings. I smiled and gave Mitch a kiss on the cheek. "Aw." the crew said together.

"Shut up!" Mitch yelled.

"Psst," Ava moved to my ear and whispered "I think someone likes you."

I didn't pay much attention to Ava at this point but it might have happened after I had told him off the last time he was giving me shit. I really only thought he had gained a certain respect for me and decided to show it like this.

All of the presents were opened, all the paper was thrown away, and every one had put all of their new toys away and were ready to start the light show tournament Each and every group were arguing who would go first. I suggested that they draw straws and whoever had the shortest straw went first. I cut the straws and put them in my hand in a way that no one could tell which ones were long or short. One person from every group drew a straw and compared theirs to the others that were pulled. Mister Laws group, which he named Dragons Mane, were the first to go. Penguin and Scratch brought out a giant board with all sorts of gadgets and doohickeys that I did not recognize. But upon closer examination, it was a little Christmas Town made of actual gingerbread houses and little carefully carved out gumdrop people. Mister Law plugged in a cord that was connected to the little Christmas Town and little lights lit up inside the houses and little street lamps made of lickerish came to life. In the center was an amazingly detailed castle that lit up brighter than the entire town. Then the lights began moving around and making pictures while _Rudolf the Red -Nosed Reindeer_ played in the background. Then a little ginger bread slay with Santa in it pulled by nine reindeer shot into view being held up by a thin metal pole that swayed back and forth. I was surprised to see the thing stay in one piece when it shot into view. Halfway into the song, the crew joined in and sang together in chorus. Mitch wasn't much for Christmas songs, so he pulled out his iPod and headphones and began listening to AC/DC. When the song was over, the crew and I cheered and it was Bepo and Pips group next.

They had one really tall ginger bread house with three stories. Then an audiobook came on of a tweaked version of _Goldilocks and the Three Bears._

_There once was a little girl named Goldilocks, who strolled though the woods on Christmas day. She came across a house and decided to rest._ When this was playing a little wax figure of a little girl with blond curls and a Christmas sweater moved on its own via magnetic control to the house. _Goldilocks knocked on the door but there was no answer, not even a peep. So Goldilocks let herself in. _After that, the lights lit up inside the doll house like structure and the little wax figure went inside the house and to the kitchen table where three bowls of roasted chestnuts were placed. _Goldilocks felt hungry, so she decided to eat the roasted chestnuts on the table. She took a bite out of the first one and said, "These are to hard." She moved on to the second one and whined, "These are to soft." Then she moved to the last bowl and said, "These are just right." and finished the entire bowl. _The little wax figure interacted with the three bowls very well. All was fine until the audio book started acting up and the little wax figure had trouble moving up the stairs. It just wouldn't move. Pip and some engineers started farting around with it, which made it worse because the ginger bread house burst into flames and the little wax figure melted.

Bepos group started to panic and Mister Law had no choice but to get Bepo to help him push the thing over board before it burnt everything else. The fire went out when the burnt bread hit the water and it floated off into the night. The crew leaned over the railing watching the would-be masterpiece float off until it could no longer be seen. "What a waste of good ginger bread." Ava said still staring in the direction that the soggy bread floated off in. "What a waste of my sweet time." Pip growled. He was annoyed that food had been wasted because of a technical glitch that the engineers should not have overlooked.

Several more failed attempts and very sad light shows more before it was finally the last light show. Avas group had drawn the longest straw, which she had named _The Mini Heart Pirates, _so they had to wait and observe the other light shows. Jordan and Mitch pulled out a very long rolled up sheet of really, really tiny lights by about a hundred per square inch of the sheet with two long tethers of rope at one side. They unrolled the sheet to a 20x20 perimeter, threw it over board and tied the tethers to the railing so it wouldn't float off. Ava took a plug that connected to the sheet of lights and plugged it in. Old Gravver brought out a radio snail and played with some dials until a tricked out version of Jingle Bell Rock and Mitch began to sing to the karaoke track. Let me tell you that boy could sing; if I ever heard a fallen angle sing, it would have been then. He made everyone want to join in at the chorus and start dancing around. Ava and I watched Mitch with astonishment and began to join in with the crowd. Mister Law and Old Gravver leaned over the railing to see crisp images following the musics lyrics with bright colors and fast moving pictures. I leaned over the railing too and saw all of the lights move in unison to create moving images. I knew who had won the contest.

_The Mini Heart Pirates _packed up everything and the whole crew stood around me as they waited for my decision. I looked at all of the faces of men who wouldn't win and almost felt bad for them. "Okay people, I know who won." I yelled. The crew crept closer in anticipation. "And the winner is..." I yelled holding up my hand in the air, getting ready to point to the winners. "Mini Heart Pirates!" I finished and pointed to Avas group. Despite losing, the whole crew cheered because they knew Avas group deserved to win. A lot of time and effort went into it and all of it showed. Of course Mister Laws group put a lot of time and effort into theirs, but they agreed that the show Mitch put on was astounding. The whole crew hugged and congratulated the winners while Mitch retreated back into the sub. I followed and made sure he didn't see me when I quickly grabbed his present to me and put them on. Then I made my way to his room, thinking of ways to get out if I needed to.

I stood outside Mitchs room listening to Mitchs blasting music from his headphones. He hadn't noticed my presence yet and I waited until he did. It took five minutes for him to finally notice me and paused his music. "Oh, hey squirt." he said.

"Hey Mitch," I started and looked down. "Thank you for the beautiful gift, and you were really great out there. Really, no joke." Mitch blushed and scratched the back of his head. "Well, I had to be able to do it since my brother can't sing for shit." He blushed a little more. "And those look really good on you, I mean it." Now it was my turn to blush and I shifted from foot to foot.

Then out of the blue, Mitchs room mates: Penguin, Scratch, and Jordan, sneaked up behind me and Jordan got in front of me. I tried to step back, but Penguin was blocking my way. "You are the first ones to cross the mistletoe, pucker up, you two!" Jordan cheered as he pulled his brother off the bed and pushed Mitch to the doorway. "Whoa, what?" Mitch said as he skidded to a halt in front of me. I looked up and saw a branch with green spiky leafs and white berries taped to the door frame. "Oh, crap!" I whispered and stared at the evil little plant. "There's only one way outta this," Scratch started, trying not to laugh out loud. "And your not going until you do what you're supposed to do under a mistletoe." Penguin finished and crossed his arms. Both Mitch and I looked up at the plant then looked at each other with blushes on both of our cheeks. Then I felt a sudden push at me pack from Penguin and Jordan had pushed Mitch; we locked lips and stayed that way until both of us regained our composer. Now our entire faces were red. I heard Scratch and Penguin cheering and laughing and I felt my gut burn. I turned around really fast and gave both of them good hard smacks that could be heard throughout the sub. Jordan had turned around when I had and gave his brother a good hard punch in the nose. All the men fell over, Penguin and Scratch had big red hands across their faces and Jordan had a bloody nose. I cleared my throat and turned to Mitch. "We will not speak of this to anyone," I said to him then turned to the boys. "And if any of you tell, you will pay and you will pay dearly."

Mitch and I had left it at that and the whole crew was asleep. It was almost one o'clock in the morning and the excitement of the day had worn them out. I was heading to the deck because someone always left the door open when the sub was afloat and I was always the one to close it. When I turned into the hall I heard The First Noel playing and saw Ava and Mister Law doing a brother-sister dance to the music. I crept up to the doorway and listened to them send snappy comebacks at each other. "Remember, last year, when you kept stepping on my feet?" Law asked in a sarcastic tone with his usual smile on his face. They turned and Ava replied with another question that one-upped his. "Remember, the year before that, you accidentally knocked me over the railing?" and she smiled. "Luckily, you didn't have devil fruit powers then." Law chuckled.

"Unlucky for me, you did. And I didn't want to save you ass if I pulled you in."

"What a loving sister you are."

"I know." They finished their dance with the end of the song coming up and I didn't waste any time getting the hell outta there. I rushed to the room Ava and I shared and put the jewelery Mitch had given me back into the little black box. I quickly dressed into my Pj's, turned off the light, and jumped onto my bed and looked like I was sleeping for a while. Ava came in five minutes after that. She saw me sleeping from the light of the hallway and decided to keep the light off. She didn't even change; she just plopped into her bed and began to sleep.


	7. Authors' Note

To all my fans and readers, big problem: I've hit writers block. I have a general idea of what I want to happen but I need two or three fillers. I can also go for OC's, but they have to be male and a part of the Heart Pirates or they have to be a bad guy. A hint in Cuervo could get you started, there is a chip in her brain that acts on moments where the host could be in danger or malfunction when the body is under stress. Remember to make your story ideas and OC's interesting. I will not accept any Mary Sue's or more OC's connected to cannon characters in any way. Cuervo is the daughter of "Hawk-Eye" Mihawk and personally knows Shanks. If you read Eustuss "Captain" Kidd story from where Ava is from (reminder, I do not own this OC) then you know that she lived on the Moby Dick with the Whitebeard pirates for a time and got on personal terms with Ace. I also need some stories for the Book of the Dead ark that I am planning on writing. Please use my chapters for reference. I look forward to your ideas.

And I will make one thing perfectly clear, I will not continue the story until I have five new story ideas. And this is no empty threat. I need story ideas!


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